Broadband is a way of connecting to the internet. It allows information to be carried at high speed to your personal computer, laptop, tablet, smartphone, smart TV or other web-enabled device. The two most common types of fixed-line broadband in the UK are ADSL and fibre. ADSL ADSL stands for Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line and is delivered through the copper wires of your phone line giving speeds up to 24 megabits per second (Mbps) depending on how far you live from your telephone exchange. This has largely been superseded within the Bride Valley area by fibre broadband. FIBRE Fibre broadband is delivered via clusters of fibre optic cables (each one thinner than a human hair) offering speeds much faster than ADSL. There are two types of fibre broadband. Fibre-to-the-Cabinet' (FTTC), where fibre optic cables run from the telephone exchange to street cabinets before using standard copper telephone wires to connect to homes. Litton Cheney now has this “superfast” service available, theoretically offering speeds ranging from 38Mbit/s to 76Mbit/s. Fibre-to-the-premises' (FTTP) which, as the name suggests, involves fibre optic cables running directly to your home, offering speeds up to 1Gbit/s (i.e. 1,000Mbit/s). It is this “ultrafast” service which a working group is seeking to bring to Litton Cheney and other Bride Valley villages. Do I need Ultrafast Broadband? The answer to this question is entirely dependent upon how you intend to use your broadband and the number of users in your home; the more users and higher demand functions you use, the better your broadband will need to be. For most, a Superfast package is likely to offer more than enough for you to be able to browse, stream, listen, and watch as much as you’d like, even with multiple devices doing so at once. You will only run into issues with the speeds offered by a Superfast package once multiple users are starting to run high demand programs simultaneously, such as gamers who stream via Twitch as they play, for example. An Ultrafast package will easily be able to handle this increased demand, with blistering speeds up to 900Mbps being offered consistently throughout your home. With the increase in demand and speed, you can often see a differentiation in price between Superfast and Ultrafast broadband, so you’ll also need to consider the financial side of these packages to ensure that the option you choose is aligned with the amount you can feasibly afford.