O2 fibre optic broadband
Despite showing interest in 'superfast' technology, O2 has never provided a fibre optic broadband connection to customers.
Sale of O2 home broadband and home phone to Sky
In 2013, O2 sold the home broadband and home phone arms of its business to competitor Sky. Existing customers will be migrated over the Sky over the course of the year.
O2 puts fibre optic plans on a back burner
In June 2011, Felix Geyr, managing director of O2 Broadband, and Chris Stening, managing director of sister company BE Broadband, were mutually talking up their future plans for "superfast" fibre optic broadband in the UK.
Writing on his company blog, Geyr said that, while he couldn't give many details, he was "delighted" to inform customers that O2 would be aiming to launch a fibre optic trial in due course.
However, O2 has not yet made any further announcements, and there has been no official word on the matter or release details of when or where trials could take place.
To see what broadband services are available in your area, use our postcode checker.
Government broadband strategy
Since back in 2010, when the government unveiled an £830million strategy to create the best broadband network in Europe by 2015, thesuperfast fibre optic race has been gathering pace for UK providers.
Providers including BT (www.BT.com) and Virgin Media (www.VirginMedia.com) have already invested heavily in their fibre networks and have plans to keep increasing their speeds and coverage.
O2 broadband packages
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Monthly cost: £2.00
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The benefits of fibre
There are several benefits to a fibre optic broadband connection:
- Consistent speeds regardless of how many people are using the connection at the same time - perfect for family households or student accommodation.
- Rapid download times for music, games, movies and TV shows. Even a high-quality film can take just minutes to download with a fibre optic connection.
- An end to "buffering" delays meaning uninterrupted film and TV streaming.
- Gamers won't face frustrating connection lags as they play.
Fibre optic vs traditional phone line
After dial-up, broadband completely revolutionised the way we used the internet at home. Delivered through the telephone network, it meant faster connection speeds, no delay while connecting and no dropped connections.
It also meant families no longer had to argue about who was tying up the phone line while they were online. Great stuff, but unsurprisingly things have moved on again since the early days of broadband.
Fibre technology is now considered to be "the future" of broadband in Britain. Fibre optic cables are designed for lightning fast data transfer and they don't suffer the same level of speed degradation with distance from the exchange as traditional ADSL broadband.
This means providers using a fibre optic network can deliver actual speeds much closer to their advertised maximums, while people with slower ADSL connections - where average speeds are generally between 30% and 50% of the "up to" amounts - can only dream of downloading so fast.
Compare broadband packages and prices with our postcode checker.
