How FTTC actually works
Data travels from your providers exchange via fibre optic cable to the green cabinet on your street, then switches to old copper telephone wire for the final run to your front door. That copper stretch, anything from 50 metres to over a kilometre, is the part that causes all the issues. Copper wire degrades over distance. The further you live from that green cabinet, the slower your connection will be.
What speeds can you actually expect?
On paper, FTTC can reach around 80Mbps download. In practice, most people get 30-70Mbps depending on their distance from the cabinet. Upload speeds are typically much lower, usually 10-20Mbps, which can become a bottleneck if youre doing lots of video calls or need to send large files regularly.
Is FTTC good enough?
For a single person or couple who mainly stream video and browse, FTTC at 60-80Mbps is usually perfectly fine. Where it starts to struggle is in larger households with multiple simultaneous users, keen gamers, or people working from home who need reliable upload speeds.
Will FTTC be phased out?
Yes. BT Openreach has committed to switching off the copper network by 2030, area by area. FTTC will eventually be replaced by full fibre across the UK. The question is just when for any given area.
