Information is sent to your PC using pulses and light waves via your fibre optic connection. The light in a fibre optic cable travels through the core by constantly bouncing from the mirror lined walls within the cable. The mirror lined walls are important as information can be sent despite a cable having many bends or twists in it. As the walls don't absorb any of the light the information can be sent great distances at fast speeds.

What's good about it?

- Speed: Fibre optic cables can carry much more information that DSL cables. This results in faster internet speeds for both uploading and downloading of files.

- Reliability: Fibre optic cables do not suffer interference from external communication sources. This means that the signal loss is much lower than DSL connections and can travel longer distances at a faster speed.

- Ease of rollout: When rolling out new broadband technology, size and weight count! Fibre optic cables are about the width of a human hair and as such they weigh allot less than DSL cables. 1 kilometer of a fibre optic network will weigh about 6kg's whereas the same length of a DSL network could weigh up to 1,000kg's

Who offers it?

At the moment, Virgin Media are the only provider out there that offers fibre optic broadband. Their lowest package starts at ?15 per month for the first 3 months, then ?20 per month thereafter. For this you will receive speeds of up to 10Mbs (around 8Mbs above the UK standard) with no download limit. As with all Virgin Media broadband packages, you will receive a free wireless router. The next package up is their 20Mbs plan for ?30 for the first three months then ?35 per month thereafter.

If you want an even faster connection then the next step up is to Virgin Media's much publicized 50Mbs package ? by far the fastest internet connection available in the UK at the moment. After you pay the ?80 install cost you will be paying ?50 per month to receive speeds of up to 50Mbs per second. Such speeds will allow you to download a song in mere seconds and movies in a few minutes. But as with most broadband technology, fibre optic broadband isn't available in all areas of the UK at the moment, so what are your alternatives if you are one of the unlucky ones?

If you currently have Sky TV you can take advantage of their 16Mbs broadband plan for ?10 extra per month which also includes evening and weekend home phone calls.

If your after a more inexpensive option, TalkTalk offer an 8Mbs broadband package with inclusive home phone evening and weekend calls for ?6.49 per month.

But, if you're only interested in fastest DSL broadband available to you then Be may be your answer. For ?21.50 per month you can get Be's Pro Broadband package that gives you speeds of up to 24Mbs, unlimited downloads and a flexible contract length of just 3 months.