Why does your home need full fibre?

If you’re a serious streamer, a heavy downloader or you love to game, you might already know what a full fibre connection can do for you.

A rapid connection, with all the bandwidth you need, lets you access the content you want more quickly – and in higher quality – than ever.

But what if you’re not convinced? What if you’re happy with your current connection, or you just don’t see the benefits in an upgrade?

Well, first of all, up to 900Mbps full fibre isn’t for everyone. If you’re a light user with only a few connected devices, it’s probably not something you need.

But while we’re here, let’s just take stock and think about all the ways a modern home might rely on the internet.

It all adds up

Let’s start by thinking about everything you do online.

When the internet first became popular, that was a pretty easy task. Most connected households had a single home computer. It was the only thing that ever needed to use the internet connection, and most of that use consisted of simple web browsing and emailing.

But what about now?

On top of browsing and email there’s also social media. All very lightweight stuff so far. But then there’s YouTube, Netflix and a host of other video services. There’s music streaming and video calling, huge game downloads and updates, and cloud backup - from photos to precious files.

And if you’re in a large household, there are probably multiple people doing some or all of these things at once.

Then there’s the demand for quality. Ten years ago, we might have been content with low resolution video streams. But now, 4K TVs are commonplace and we want our streaming content to take full advantage of that.

The point is, our internet use has exploded, and all the trends indicate it’s only going in one direction.

When you’re just browsing, speed isn’t really an issue. When you’re doing all the above and more though, it really starts to add up.

All your devices

Most people if asked to think of their connected devices would probably come up with the usual suspects – laptops, smartphones, tablets, etc.

But increasingly, there are more and varied devices wanting a piece of our bandwidth. Think of smart thermostats, lightbulbs, doorbells and CCTV systems. Our homes are becoming increasingly smart and connected.

And as we add more and more ‘Internet of Things’ (IoT) devices to our homes, they all start to chip away at our available bandwidth – especially when it comes to devices like video cameras and smart speakers.

The more connected devices in our homes, the higher the ‘baseline’ becomes for minimum acceptable connectivity speed.

After all, it’s no use having a smart, connected home, if all those connected devices mean we can no longer enjoy our Friday night Netflix binges.

So, if you’re excited by the connected home of the future, just remember you’ll need an internet connection built to cope. To cope with the potentially hundreds of smart devices dotted around your home, all while taking your 4K streaming, game downloading, video calling internet use in its stride.

When you’re looking for the ultimate in connectivity, when compromise isn’t an option and when you need the connected home of tomorrow today, then your home needs full fibre.