FTTP
Fibre to the Premises. Fibre running all the way into your building rather than stopping at a street cabinet. The fastest and most reliable mainstream option, and increasingly the only thing being installed.
Glossary
Telecoms runs on acronyms, and most of them exist to describe something fairly simple. Here is what each one actually means, and why it matters on your quote.
Connections
Fibre to the Premises. Fibre running all the way into your building rather than stopping at a street cabinet. The fastest and most reliable mainstream option, and increasingly the only thing being installed.
Fibre to the Cabinet. Fibre to the green box in the street, then copper for the last stretch to you. Cheaper than full fibre, but the copper section limits the speed and the distance matters.
Single Order Generic Ethernet Access. Broadband without an analogue phone line underneath it. Same technology as FTTC, minus the voice line you no longer need. The usual like-for-like replacement at the PSTN switch-off.
A dedicated circuit reserved entirely for your business. Uncontended, symmetrical, and backed by a service level agreement. More expensive because you fund the whole line rather than a share of one.
How much your connection is shared with others nearby. Standard broadband is contended, which is why it is cheap and why speeds are "up to". A leased line is uncontended, so performance does not change with the time of day.
Upload speed matches download speed. Standard broadband is not symmetrical, which is why sending a large file or hosting a video call feels slower than the headline number suggests.
Voice
Public Switched Telephone Network. The old copper-based analogue phone network, being withdrawn on 31 January 2027. See our PSTN switch-off guide.
Integrated Services Digital Network. The older multi-line business phone service, retired alongside the PSTN. If you have ISDN 2 or ISDN 30, you are on the list.
Voice over Internet Protocol. Calls carried over your internet connection instead of a phone line. The number stops being tied to a building, so it can ring wherever you tell it to.
The digital equivalent of a phone line, delivering calls to a phone system over the internet. Often used where a business wants to keep its existing on-site system rather than move fully hosted.
Your phone system lives in a data centre rather than a cupboard. No hardware to maintain, changes are settings rather than engineer visits, and it works from anywhere.
Moving an existing phone number from one provider to another. Always port before cancelling: a disconnected number cannot be recovered.
On the quote
Service Level Agreement. A contractual commitment to fix times and availability. The presence of a real SLA, with compensation attached, is much of what you pay for on a leased line.
Excess Construction Charges. Additional costs where the survey finds no usable route into your building and civils work is needed. Quoted after survey, not at order, which is why firm prices sometimes come later than expected.
The legal agreement letting a carrier install and keep equipment in a building it does not own. Signed by the landlord or managing agent, and the most common cause of delay in shared buildings.
Meter point reference numbers, for electricity and gas respectively. Not telecoms, but they appear when you are switching energy and people mix them up with line references.
Letter of Authority. Your written permission for us to talk to your existing providers on your behalf. It lets us gather information and quote accurately. It does not commit you to anything.
Where Openreach has stopped allowing new orders or changes on copper products at an exchange. Already in force across most of the country ahead of the switch-off, which narrows your options if you wait.
Networks and Wi-Fi
Common questions
FTTC runs fibre to a street cabinet and copper for the final stretch to your building, so distance from the cabinet limits your speed. FTTP runs fibre all the way in, which is faster, more reliable and not distance-sensitive in the same way. Where FTTP is available it is almost always the better choice.
SOGEA uses the same fibre-to-the-cabinet infrastructure as standard business broadband, so performance is comparable. The difference is that it comes without an analogue phone line underneath, so you stop paying line rental for a voice service you no longer use.
That the capacity back to the network is shared with other users in your area. It is why standard broadband is affordable and why speeds are quoted as "up to". An uncontended service, such as a leased line, reserves the capacity for you alone.
It is the legal agreement letting a carrier put equipment in a building it does not own, signed by the landlord or managing agent. In shared buildings it is the single most common cause of delay, because it depends on a third party who has no deadline of their own.
Extra costs quoted when the survey finds no usable duct or route into your building, so physical construction work is needed. They vary enormously by site and are quoted after survey rather than at order, which is why a firm price sometimes takes longer than expected.
Send us the quote. We will tell you what each line means and whether you need it.