Businesses have required connectivity, in one form or another, for hundreds of years in order to secure prosperity and growth.

In the modern world, network access is a vitally important tool for any firm that wishes to remain competitive, but not all services offer the best possible performance that will live up to the requirements of a contemporary enterprise.

As such, companies need to think carefully about the types of connections that they adopt in order to secure a future-proof, scalable approach that will see them make gains in the long term.

FTTC (fibre to the cabinet) is a type of broadband connectivity that fits this description particularly well at the moment.

Until recently many businesses have had to rely on ADSL broadband in order to remain online and run all of their network-based services.

ADSL was adequate in the early days, but has since been superseded because the march of progress demands much higher bandwidths. Because ADSL still relies on copper telephone lines to link businesses to the nearest exchange, connection speeds and general performance levels have been compromised.

FTTP (fibre to the premises) is a far more suitable solution for modern businesses, since it uses fibre optic cables to provide broadband access and promises dramatic speed boosts when compared to ADSL.

However, FTTP faces its own issues, because at the moment the UK’s fibre infrastructure is relatively undeveloped, in part as a result of the expense involved in running a fresh fibre line right into every single property that requires it.

FTTC is a good compromise because it offers the higher connection speeds that businesses require right now, while presenting an opportunity for future developments to push this even further.

Rather than linking buildings with fibre, the cabling runs to street-level cabinets, with the final few metres bridged using existing copper lines. This means that there is far less distance over which the signal can degrade and the roll-out of FTTC is far cheaper and faster than full FTTP.

Average FTTC speeds start at around 80Mbps, with future development promising widespread availability of 330Mbps services.

In addition, if your business operates in an area with FTTC you will soon be able to request the installation of an FTTP line since most of the infrastructure is already in place. In terms of the benefits that fibre broadband provides for businesses, the catch-all empowerment comes in the form of scalability.

With a limited broadband connection, a business will be restricted in what it is able to achieve in an increasingly digital-oriented marketplace. Competitors who have high-speed network access will therefore be given the advantage, since they are able to adopt more services and hire more staff without hitting a data rate bottleneck that forces them to make compromises.

FTTC makes it easy for even small businesses to access cloud computing services, which in turn will allow them to overcome budgetary limitations and use the same platforms as large corporations and multinationals.

It will also simplify the process of adopting VoIP so that call costs drop and the need for renting multiple lines is reduced, since analogue issues will all be eradicated.

A better connected business is one which can expect to grow and succeed, just as a poorly connected one will be less able to match its rivals.

This means that getting an FTTC broadband connection, if one is available in your area, will prove to be a valuable asset both now and in the future. Speed boosts and the option to add FTTP at a later date should convince sceptics of its worthiness and potential for scalability.

Daisy are a leading provider of business fibre optic broadband connections. Find out more on their website.