Fibre

What is fibre?

‘Fibre’ refers to a fibre-optic connection that is replacing old copper phone lines. It sends more data at higher speeds than even the fastest connection on a copper line.

Fibre lets people run more devices in their home and access all the online services they need, such as movies, music and gaming.

If your home has a number of devices like smart phones, tablets, PCs, Smart TVs or gaming consoles, you need the speed and bandwidth of fibre (as copper ADSL and VDSL internet connections can get congested as more devices are added to the same connection, and used at the same time).

Comparatively, with a fibre connection you won’t see a drop-in speed or function caused by running several devices at the same time.

Fibre is the connection to get the most from the internet now and to be ready for the next generation of services, and with Nova you can get our Fibre 100/20 for the same cost as ADSL or VDSL.

    What is fibre?

    Sign up for fibre

    With Nova broadband

    Here’s what fibre lets you enjoy:

    • All the entertainment you can handle. Watch TV, movies, sport and more on Netflix, On Demand, Sky Online, Neon, Amazon Prime, Lightbox and the ever-growing list of providers
    • Streaming music via Spotify, Apple Music, SoundCloud or any other online music source
    • The best gaming experiences. Play faster, get updates quicker and add more players
    • Learn faster. Get more information and access video easily - perfect for any level of education
    • Cloud store easily. Greater upload and download speeds let you store your files safely and access them quickly
    • The freedom to work from home. With fibre anything you need to send, receive or access via the cloud is done quickly and easily.

    Frequent questions

    What is the difference between broadband speeds?

    Fibre 100/20

    This fibre-optic connection has download speeds of up to 100 megabits per second (Mbps) and upload speeds of up to 20Mbps (noting that these are the theoretical maximum speeds available, and average speeds will vary). These fast speeds are needed for getting the best use out of smart TVs or gaming consoles, and streaming media like Netflix or Spotify.

    Fast Fibre 200/20

    A fibre-optic connection with even faster download speeds of up to 200 Mbps and up to 20 Mbps upload speeds (again noting that these are the theoretical maximum speeds available, and average speeds will vary), which is great for high volumes of media or a better gaming experience.

    Internet via your existing copper phone line is slower than fibre, but if you live in an area where you can’t currently get connected to fibre we offer:

    ADSL

    An ADSL connection gives you broadband via the old copper phone line network to your home. With ADSL you can expect an average download speed of about 10 Mbps and average upload speeds of 1 Mbps. This is ok for emailing, surfing the web and checking social media, but is not the best experience for streaming media i.e. Netflix.

    VDSL

    A VDSL connection also uses the copper line but offers faster speeds than ADSL. Please note, this connection may not be available to everyone. VDSL will give you download speeds of up to 50 Mbps and upload speeds up to 10 Mbps (again noting that these are the theoretical maximum speeds available, and average speeds will vary). VDSL improves speed over short distances, but you will need to be located within 800m of the relevant cabinet or exchange to take advantage of speeds up to 20 Mbps or more.

    The speed for ADSL and VDSL is dependent upon distance and the neighbouring traffic.