What it actually means
Fibre broadband uses thin strands of glass to carry your internet as pulses of light, which is a lot quicker and far more reliable than the old copper telephone wire it's replacing. In the UK, fibre comes in two main flavours.
FTTC stands for Fibre to the Cabinet. The fibre runs from the exchange to the green street cabinet on your road, then copper takes over for the last stretch into your home. That copper section caps speeds at roughly 40 to 80 Mbps and is why people further from the cabinet get a slower connection than their neighbours.
FTTP stands for Fibre to the Premises. The fibre runs the whole way, with no copper involved. Speeds sit between 80 Mbps and 1 Gbps and beyond, and the line doesn't weaken with distance. The UK is mid rollout of FTTP, so plenty of streets still rely on FTTC while they wait for full fibre to arrive.
At home
What this looks like in the house
If your evenings involve someone shouting up the stairs because the film keeps buffering, the difference between FTTC and FTTP is the difference between a tense Wednesday night and a calm one. A copper-tail line struggles when three or four people pile on at once. Full fibre just holds. You stop noticing the broadband, which is the only review a home connection really needs.
In business
What this looks like at work
Every frozen video call is a client wondering if you're a serious operator, and every hour of downtime is money walking out the door. FTTC can wobble under the weight of cloud apps, card machines, and video meetings running at the same time. FTTP gives you headroom, near symmetrical uploads, and far fewer weather faults, so your team isn't sitting around losing billable hours when the rain comes in.