Switching to Full Fibre Doesn’t Just Give You Faster Broadband

internet, broadband, data, computer,There are many benefits to switching to Full Fibre broadband, something the UK is in line to achieve before 2025. These don’t only include faster download and upload speeds, but there are many other benefits too.

One of the drawbacks of copper cable is that it is heavy, another is that it is fragile. It weighs about 10g per foot, and there were 57,000,000 miles of copper cable buried under the ground and hanging from telegraph poles, (I’ve done the numbers, that’s 3,960,000 tonnes) and it’s easy for it to get damaged by high winds, damage poles, roadworks digging in the wrong place and many other causes.

Copper Is Costly

Copper is also valuable. At the time of writing the value of refined copper is $7,450 per tonne. With almost four million tonnes of copper lying around, that’s a huge resource, and a huge temptation. Throughout the UK and elsewhere there have been several incidents where there have been phone and internet outages due to people stealing data cable. (With the very low amperages used in telephony and data, it’s clearly a much safer bet than stealing electrical cable!) Fibre on the other hand is virtually valueless to anyone who isn’t a fibre installer.

So fibre’s more likely to be left in the ground, and while it’s there it’s a lot less likely to require maintenance too. Verizon, the US phone and data provider report that in New York, after installing fibre there has been a 60% reduction in truck deployments to maintenance issues, and a 40-60% reduction in associated costs. Read more

What To Really Look Out For When Buying A New Home

Modern white kitchen with white marble counter top and pendant lighting.You’ll want to move home for many reasons. It’s one of the biggest, and most stressful decisions you’ll ever make, so it’s important that you get it right before jumping in. There are many reasons to buy a house. You want something bigger, or something smaller, something with fewer stairs, or buying a new home now you can finally afford to move out of rental properties and start paying money into a bricks and mortar investment into your own future.

Location When Buying A New Home

As the old adage goes: the three most important factors to look at are location, location, location. And that hasn’t become any less true as the years have passed. You might find a beautiful property which has everything you want, but it’s located under an airport’s flight path. Or downwind from a waste processing plant. If you’re a heavy sleeper, hard of hearing or have a terrible sense of smell then these may not be deal breakers, but for young families and people with particularly sensitive noses, they’d be absolute no-no’s! So what are the pros and cons of location? Read more