Fibre vs Full Fibre: What’s the Difference?

“Fibre” broadband usually means part fibre: fibre optic cable runs to a green cabinet in your street, and the old copper phone line carries the signal the last stretch into your home.

Full fibre runs fibre optic cable all the way into your home, which is why it can reach gigabit speeds where part fibre normally tops out at about 80Mbps.

That one difference drives everything else: speed, upload, reliability, and what happens when the copper network is retired. This guide sets out typical speeds for each, what the price gap really is, how to check what your address can get, and when full fibre is worth paying for.

For the wider picture of every connection type, see our broadband fundamentals guide.

Prices were checked on 1 November 2026, on BT’s own site and at a sample UK address. Yours depend on your postcode, so check again before you order.

The short answer

Part fibre (also sold as “fibre”, “superfast” or FTTC) uses fibre to the street cabinet and copper to your home. Full fibre (FTTP or FTTH) uses fibre all the way.

Full fibre is faster, has much better upload speeds and slows down less at busy times. Part fibre is often a few pounds a month cheaper, and at some addresses it is the only option for now.

Part fibre (FTTC): fibre to the cabinet, copper to your home

FTTC stands for fibre to the cabinet. The fibre stops at the street cabinet, and the copper phone line covers the final few hundred metres. Copper loses signal over distance, so the further your home is from the cabinet, the slower your connection.

Openreach puts it simply: “Copper cables slow down over distance and are more likely to develop faults.”

Ofcom says FTTC’s maximum download speed “is normally up to 80 Mbit/s”. Openreach quotes up to 76Mbps. A faster variant called G.fast squeezes more out of short copper lines; Sky sells it as Ultrafast with an average speed of 145Mbps, and still labels it part fibre. Our complete guide to FTTC covers how it works in detail.

Full fibre (FTTP): fibre all the way in

FTTP stands for fibre to the premises, and FTTH (fibre to the home) means the same thing for a house or flat. Openreach describes it as fibre optic cable “all the way from the exchange to your home or business”. There is no copper in the broadband connection at all.

Because the fibre “connects directly to your property, instead of stopping at the cabinet in the street”, as Openreach puts it, your distance from the cabinet stops mattering. Openreach’s network supports packages up to 1,600Mbps, and some providers sell more:

Sky’s top full fibre package averages 5,000Mbps both ways. Our full guide to FTTP goes through installation and providers.

Where cable broadband fits

Virgin Media’s network is a third type. It runs fibre to the street and then coaxial cable, not phone-line copper, into your home. Virgin Media calls it a “cable broadband network” and sells most packages as “Fibre Broadband”, while only its Gig2 package is labelled full fibre.

Cable can reach gigabit speeds too, where available. See how cable broadband works.

Part fibre, full fibre and cable at a glance

	Part fibre (FTTC)	Full fibre (FTTP/FTTH)	Cable (Virgin Media)
Last stretch to your home	Copper phone line	Fibre optic cable	Coaxial cable
Typical top download	Up to about 80Mbps (G.fast: around 145Mbps)	Up to 1,600Mbps on Openreach; more on some networks	Over 1,000Mbps, where available
Upload speed	Low (BT and Sky: 8 to 20Mbps)	Higher on faster packages (BT: 49 to 110Mbps)	Varies by package
Distance from cabinet affects speed	Yes	No	No
Affected by copper retirement	Yes	No	No

Why “fibre” has meant two different things

If “fibre” and “full fibre” sound like the same product, that is partly because for years the industry was allowed to use one word for both.

The ASA’s 2017 decision and the 2019 court case

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) reviewed the question in 2017. On 23 November 2017 it concluded that the word “fibre” was “unlikely to mislead consumers” in ads for part-fibre broadband. Its research found that “fibre” was seen as a generic buzzword for fast broadband rather than something people chose on.

The ASA did set limits: ads must not call non-fibre services “fibre”, and must not imply a part-fibre service is the most technologically advanced on the market.

Full fibre builder CityFibre challenged the decision in the High Court. On 15 April 2019 the court found in the ASA’s favour on all grounds, although the judge accepted that full fibre is technically superior to part fibre in a number of important respects.

As far as we can find, the ASA has not changed its position since.

Ofcom’s labelling rules since September 2024

The communications regulator, Ofcom, took a different line. Since 16 September 2024, providers have had to describe the technology behind each broadband product in clear terms such as “full-fibre”, “part-fibre”, “copper” or “cable”, and “will no longer be able to use the term ‘fibre’ on its own”.

That label must appear before you buy: on the provider’s website at the point of sale, in the contract information and in the contract summary. Ofcom’s rules cover the sales process, not advertising, so a TV or billboard ad can still say “fibre” for a part-fibre product. The contract summary is the place to look.

Typical speeds of each

The headline difference is speed, but the numbers depend on whether you look at the maximum a technology can do or what households actually get.

Typical speeds by broadband type, Ofcom and provider figures

Type	Maximum or top package	Median download measured by Ofcom (March 2023)	Example upload speed
ADSL (copper all the way)	Low	11.7Mbps	Very low
Part fibre (FTTC)	Normally up to 80Mbps	55.7Mbps	BT Fibre 2: 20Mbps
Full fibre (FTTP)	Up to 1,600Mbps (Openreach)	149.2Mbps	BT Full Fibre 900: 110Mbps
Cable (Virgin Media)	Gigabit, where available	270.6Mbps	Varies by package

Ofcom’s measured figures are medians across real homes in March 2023, its last report of this kind. The full fibre figure looks modest because many households on full fibre buy a 100Mbps or 150Mbps package, not a gigabit one.

On the same tests, Virgin Media’s 1.13Gbps cable package recorded 1,137Mbps, and a symmetrical 300Mbps full fibre service recorded the highest upload speed, 337Mbps.

Download speeds you’ll see on deals

Providers now quote an average speed for each package. At Sky, part-fibre Superfast averages 67Mbps against 900Mbps for Full Fibre Gigafast. At BT, part-fibre Fibre 2 averages 74Mbps against 900Mbps for Full Fibre 900.

Whether that gap matters depends on how many people stream, game or download at once. Our guide to what speed you actually need works it out by household.

Upload speeds and busy-time speeds

Upload is where full fibre pulls furthest ahead. Sky’s Superfast uploads at an average 16Mbps, its Gigafast at 90Mbps; BT’s Fibre 2 at 20Mbps, its Full Fibre 900 at 110Mbps.

The cheapest full fibre tiers can be closer: Sky’s Full Fibre 75 uploads at 16Mbps, the same as Superfast. That matters for video calls, sending large files and backing up photos to the cloud.

Ofcom also found that the effect of network congestion at busy times “is lowest for full-fibre lines”. Part fibre held up reasonably well too, with peak-time speeds at about 95% of maximum.

But on copper, the maximum itself is capped by “the length and quality of the copper”, so a long line stays slow whatever time of day it is. A slow connection can also be down to your router or weak WiFi in parts of the home, which no change of line will fix.

Fibre vs full fibre prices

Full fibre is not always much dearer. At the same provider the gap can be a few pounds, or nothing at all.

BT part fibre vs full fibre, November 2026 (BT’s own prices with a landline, 24-month contract)

Package	Type	Average download	Starting price a month	24-month total
Fibre Essential	Part fibre	35–36Mbps	£28.99	£799.76
Fibre 1	Part fibre	50Mbps	£28.99	£799.76
Fibre 2	Part fibre	74Mbps	£29.99	£823.76
Full Fibre 300	Full fibre	300Mbps	£32.99	£895.76
Full Fibre 500	Full fibre	500Mbps	£32.99	£895.76
Full Fibre 900	Full fibre	900Mbps	£33.99	£919.76

Every BT price rises by a fixed £4 a month on 31 March 2027 and again on 31 March 2028, and the totals assume a November 2026 start.

On these prices, moving from part-fibre Fibre 2 to Full Fibre 300 costs £3 a month more, or £72 over 24 months, for about four times the download speed and more than double the upload. Full Fibre 900 costs £96 more than Fibre 2 over the contract.

Sky TV bundles with part fibre and full fibre, at a sample address

Bundle	Type	Average download	Price a month	Reward
Sky Stream, Essential TV, Netflix & Superfast	Part fibre	67Mbps	£35	£80
Sky Stream, Essential TV, Netflix & Full Fibre 75	Full fibre	75Mbps	£35	£80
Sky Stream, Essential TV, Netflix & Full Fibre Gigafast	Full fibre	900Mbps	£35	£80

At that address all three Sky bundles cost the same, £840 over 24 months. Sky’s prices are variable mid-contract, so that total assumes no rise. Where full fibre is available at the same price, there is no reason to take the part-fibre version.

Smaller full fibre deals can undercut part fibre altogether. At the same sample address, broadband-only full fibre started at £20.50 a month for Vodafone Full Fibre 150, £21.99 for Plusnet Full Fibre 145 and £25 for TalkTalk Full Fibre 150.

Those are a different price basis from BT’s national list above, so compare at your own postcode. Our cheapest broadband deals guide tracks the lowest prices.

The copper switch-off and what it means for part fibre

Part fibre has a shorter future than full fibre, because it depends on the copper network. BT Group will retire the old phone network, the PSTN, by 31 January 2027. Openreach says the switch-off “impacts all services powered by copper lines, including ISDN, and ADSL and FTTC broadband”.

That doesn’t mean every part-fibre connection stops on that date. Customers move to digital services instead: calls over the broadband (VoIP), and either part fibre without the old phone line (SoGEA, which Sky labels “Part-fibre (FTTC / SoGEA)”) or full fibre where it is built.

Openreach is also stopping new copper sales area by area. Once 75% of premises connected to an exchange can get full fibre, it stops selling copper-based phone and broadband there, so anyone switching or upgrading has to take a digital service.

By 5 June 2026 that applied in 1,432 exchanges covering around 14.2 million premises. Because stop sell only starts once three in four homes there can get full fibre, changing deal in one of those areas usually means moving to full fibre.

How to check what you can get, and what you have

Full fibre was available to 24.9 million UK homes, 82%, in January 2026, according to Ofcom. Openreach alone reaches more than 22 million premises and aims for 25 million by the end of 2026. Whether yours is one of them comes down to your exact address.

Ofcom’s broadband checker

Ofcom’s free broadband checker at checker.ofcom.org.uk asks for your postcode and shows which standard, superfast and ultrafast broadband is available, as a list or a map. It covers every network, not just Openreach, so it is the quickest way to see whether full fibre, cable or only part fibre reaches your street.

Openreach’s Full Fibre checker

Openreach’s Full Fibre checker at openreach.com/fibre-checker asks for your postcode and then your address. It tells you whether full fibre is “Available to order now”, coming soon, being built or in its plans, or that there are “no plans to build yet”.

It only covers Openreach’s network, which BT, Sky, TalkTalk, EE and Plusnet all sell over; other full fibre networks need the Ofcom checker or the network’s own site.

How to tell which type you have now

Check your contract summary. Since September 2024 it has to say “full fibre”, “part fibre”, “copper” or “cable”.

Check the package name. BT’s Fibre Essential, Fibre 1 and Fibre 2, Sky’s Superfast and Ultrafast, and TalkTalk’s Fibre 35 and Fibre 65 are part fibre. Names with “Full Fibre” in them are full fibre.

Look at your speed. If you regularly get much more than 80Mbps on a phone-line connection, it is very unlikely to be FTTC.

Look at where the router plugs in. On part fibre the router plugs into the phone socket. On Openreach full fibre, the router connects by ethernet cable to a small box on the wall, which Openreach calls an optical network terminal (ONT).

Is full fibre worth it?

For most households that can get it, yes. On BT’s own prices, the step from its fastest part fibre to Full Fibre 300 is £3 a month, and at Sky’s TV bundles at our sample address there was no gap at all.

You get far faster uploads, speeds that don’t depend on your distance from the cabinet, and a connection that isn’t tied to the copper being retired.

Full fibre makes sense if…

• Several people stream, game or work from home at once. Download and upload speed both matter when the connection is shared.
• Your part-fibre speed is poor. If you’re a long way from the cabinet, full fibre fixes the cause rather than the symptom.
• You’re in a stop-sell area or out of contract anyway. Switching now means one move, not two.

Part fibre can still make sense if…

• Full fibre isn’t built at your address yet. Part fibre, cable where Virgin Media is available, or 4G and 5G home broadband are the alternatives; satellite broadband is the fallback for remote homes.
• You’re happy with your speed and mid-contract. Leaving early can mean an exit fee; wait for the end of your term.
• The part-fibre deal really is cheaper at your address. This suits one or two people who use it for browsing and streaming in HD.

For how part fibre compares with old copper ADSL, see fibre vs standard broadband. If you’re choosing between full fibre packages, our guide to full fibre vs gigabit explains why the network matters more than the label.

Fibre vs full fibre FAQs

Is “fibre broadband” the same as full fibre? Not necessarily. Many deals sold as “fibre” in the past were part fibre, with copper for the last stretch. Since 16 September 2024 Ofcom has required providers to say “full fibre” or “part fibre” before you buy, rather than “fibre” on its own.

Is Virgin Media full fibre? Mostly not. Most of Virgin Media’s network is cable broadband: fibre to the street, then coaxial cable to your home. It is still fast: its 1.13Gbps package recorded the fastest median download in Ofcom’s March 2023 tests. Virgin Media labels its Gig2 package full fibre.

Will part fibre stop working when the landline is switched off? Not by itself. The old phone network is due to be retired by 31 January 2027, and Openreach is moving customers to digital services, including part fibre that doesn’t need the traditional phone line (SoGEA). Where full fibre is widely available, Openreach is stopping new copper sales.

Do I need a phone line for full fibre? No. Full fibre doesn’t use the copper phone line. TalkTalk, for example, sells its Full Fibre services as data-only, while its part-fibre broadband includes a landline. If you want a home phone on full fibre, calls run over the broadband.