What is NBN fibre to the curb (FTTC)?

What fibre to the curb is

Fibre to the curb (FTTC), also written fibre to the kerb, is the type of NBN where fibre runs all the way to the telecommunications pit in the street outside your home. From the pit, the existing copper phone line carries the internet the last stretch into the house.

It sits between two other types. Fibre to the node stops the fibre at a cabinet somewhere in the neighbourhood and leaves a long copper run. Fibre to the premises takes the fibre right into the house. Fibre to the curb gets the fibre as close as the footpath, so the only copper left is your own lead-in and the wiring inside. That short stretch of copper is where most faults on this type are found, and it is the part an independent NBN technician tests from your side of the boundary.

How fibre to the curb works

1. 1

   Fibre to the pit

   Fibre runs from the NBN network to a small unit in the pit outside, called a distribution point unit or DPU. One unit serves a handful of homes.

2. 2

   Copper to the house

   From the pit, your phone line, the lead-in cable, carries the signal to the first phone socket inside.

3. 3

   The NBN box on the phone socket

   A small white NBN box plugs into the phone socket and a power point. It talks to the unit in the pit, and it also sends power back down the phone line to run it.

4. 4

   Your router on the NBN box

   Your router plugs into the yellow port on the NBN box with a network cable and makes the WiFi.

From the street to your router

Show the line

Working Box switched off

123456

1. 1Street fibre
2. 2Pit and distribution point unit (DPU)
3. 3Copper lead-in
4. 4FTTC connection box
5. 5Your router
6. 6Your box powers the unit in the pit

How do I know if I have fibre to the curb?

You can usually tell from what is on the wall. On fibre to the curb there is a small white NBN box plugged into a phone socket and a power point, with four lights on the front that are all blue when it is working, and it clicks for a while after a power cut.

• No box, and the modem plugs straight into the phone socket? That is fibre to the node in a house, or fibre to the building in a unit.
• A box on a round, screw-on socket like the old pay TV one? That is HFC.
• A white box fixed to the wall with a thin cable going in? That is fibre to the premises.

To be certain, put your address into NBN’s address checker. It names the technology at your address. The other types are compared in how to tell which NBN connection you have.

The FTTC NBN box

The fibre to the curb NBN box is a small white box, about the size of a paperback, with four lights on the front. NBN calls it the network connection device, or NCD. It belongs to NBN and stays with the property.

It does two jobs. It is the modem for your service, and it is the power supply for the unit in the pit. That second job is what makes fibre to the curb different from every other NBN type, and it explains the two things people notice most:

• It clicks. The box clicks as it tries to power up NBN’s equipment in the street and make a connection. A short burst after a power cut or a restart can be normal. If it keeps clicking and the connection light never comes on solid, it is not going to connect on its own: that is a fault on the line, the lead-in or NBN’s equipment, not something to wait out.
• It has to stay on. If the box is switched off or unplugged, the unit in the street loses the power you were supplying, and your service stops. That is also why fibre to the curb goes down in a blackout: what keeps working when the power is out.

When everything is working, all four lights are blue. For what each light means, and what a red or flashing light is telling you, see NBN connection box lights.

Watch: NBN FTTC vs FTTN: See The Actual Difference

What can go wrong on fibre to the curb

Because the fibre comes so close, there is not much copper left to cause trouble. What is left is mostly yours: the lead-in from the pit, and the phone wiring inside the house.

What you see on fibre to the curb, and where the cause usually sits

What you see	What it usually points to	Whose side
The box clicks and flashes blue, and never settles	The box cannot hold the connection: the lead-in, a joint, or other sockets still on the line	Either side. It needs testing
The Connection light is red	A problem with the power the box sends to the street	Start with your provider
Drops out several times a day, to no pattern	Old phone sockets still connected to the line inside the house	Usually your side
Drops out in wind or rain	A damaged lead-in, or water in a joint	Either side. It needs testing
Fine on a cable, poor on WiFi	The router or where it sits	Your side, and not the line at all
The whole street is off	The unit in the pit, or an outage	NBN's

The most common one inside the house is old phone sockets. Most homes were wired with several, in a chain or all running back to one point, and on fibre to the curb every socket still connected is hanging off your internet line. An extra socket left on the line is called a bridge tap. It weakens the signal, and it can be enough to make the box drop and reconnect all day. More in what a bridge tap is.

Dropouts that follow the weather are a different fault, and there is a post on that too: fibre to the curb dropouts when it is windy or raining. Where the cable from the pit to the house is damaged on your property, it can be run again as a new lead-in.

When the box keeps dropping and nobody can say whose side the fault is on, that is the question we answer on site: how we find and fix an NBN fault, by what you are seeing.

Getting the best from fibre to the curb

• Put the NBN box on the first socket. That is the socket where the line enters the house. No extension leads, splitters or old filters.
• Have the unused sockets taken off the line. This is the single change that most often turns a dropping fibre to the curb service into a steady one. We fit one wall socket on its own cable and take the old sockets off the line.
• Leave the box on. Do not put it on a power board that gets switched off at night.
• Cable what you can. A TV, a console or a work computer on a network cable is steadier than anything on WiFi.
• Deal with the WiFi as its own problem. The first phone socket is often in a hallway or a bedroom, which may be a poor place for a router. A cable from the box to a router or mesh unit in the middle of the house fixes that. An extender is rarely the answer.

Check your speed first Test on a cable at the router first, then on WiFi in the room that is slow. If the cable result is close to your plan, the line is doing its job and the WiFi is what needs attention.

What speed can fibre to the curb do?

Fibre to the curb is one of the copper types, so it cannot take the very fastest NBN plans, which need fibre to the premises or HFC. Within the plans it can take, the short copper run means most homes get close to what they pay for, as long as the wiring on their side is sound.

Fibre to the curb was not part of NBN’s September 2025 speed boost, which went to fibre to the premises and HFC. The current speed tiers are on our NBN speed test page.

We do not sell plans or rank providers. When you choose one, look at the evening speed the provider publishes for the plan, not only the headline number, and pick the speed your household will really use.

The future of fibre to the curb

NBN has been upgrading fibre to the curb areas to fibre to the premises. Since 1 July 2026, the upgrade on fibre to the curb no longer depends on the speed of the plan you order: NBN dropped the requirement to order a high-speed plan to get it. NBN’s address checker (opens in a new tab) says whether your address can have it, and which charges apply is for NBN and your provider to state.

If you do upgrade, the old copper drops out of your connection altogether. How the change works, and where the two new boxes go, is in the fibre to the premises upgrade explained. The decision worth getting right beforehand is where the inside box goes, because that decides where your router sits: see our FTTP upgrade cabling page.