What underlying technology does NOW Broadband use?

Your broadband signal uses different technology to travel from the exchange building to your home depending on what kind of NOW Broadband you have:

• NOW Brilliant Broadband uses Copper technology
• NOW Fab Fibre and Super Fibre both use Part Fibre technology.
  
  

Good to know: These NOW Broadband products are no longer available for new members to buy. They’ve been replaced by NOW Powered by Sky broadband, which uses Full Fibre technology.

Copper broadband

Copper broadband connects from a local telephone exchange usually to a street cabinet box, which is normally only a few hundred metres from your home. It then travels to your home via a traditional copper phone line.

With copper broadband, the speed you get can decrease the further your home is from the exchange.

The service can also be affected by poor weather conditions and can be more prone to faults.

Copper broadband may not be fast enough for a household where lots of people are using the internet heavily at the same time.

Good to know: Copper technology is being phased out by broadband providers as part of the UK-wide upgrade to fibre connections.

Part Fibre or Fibre-to-the-Cabinet (FTTC)

Part Fibre or FTTC has a fibre optic connection, made up of a bundle of thin glass ‘fibre’ threads, from the local telephone exchange to the street cabinet.

The final connection from the street cabinet to your home is usually over a copper wire telephone line.

This means that the broadband speed you get can decrease the further your home is from the street cabinet.

Part Fibre can be faster than Copper broadband, but slower than a Full Fibre connection.

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