SoGEA is business broadband delivered over fibre to the street cabinet and copper for the last stretch into your building, with no phone line attached. It stands for single order generic ethernet access. “Single order” means you order the broadband on its own, instead of on top of a phone line you may never use.
It is the connection most businesses are offered where full fibre has not yet reached the building.
How SoGEA reaches your building
Fibre runs from the exchange to the green cabinet in your street. From the cabinet, the existing copper pair carries the signal the last few hundred metres into the premises. That is exactly the path that fibre to the cabinet (FTTC) uses, and “generic ethernet access” is Openreach’s name for the fibre product behind both.
The copper stretch is what limits the speed, and it is why two offices on the same estate can get different results: the further the building is from the cabinet, the slower the line.
How fast is SoGEA?
The common tiers are 40, 55 and 80 Mbps download, with up to 20 Mbps upload on the 80 Mbps tier (DrayTek). Openreach gives up to 76 Mbps for fibre to the cabinet, the technology underneath (Openreach). Those are maximums. What your line will do depends on its length, and the availability check we run before you order gives an estimated speed range for your address.
For a typical office, SoGEA handles email, Microsoft 365, hosted phones and card payments comfortably. The limit is upload. If your team sends large files all day, backs up to the cloud during working hours or runs video calls from every desk, 20 Mbps up is where it starts to show, and that is the point to look at full fibre or a leased line.
SoGEA vs FTTC
SoGEA and FTTC are the same line: the same fibre to the same cabinet and the same copper pair into your building, at the same speed. The difference is that FTTC was sold on top of a phone line, so you paid line rental for a number you might never have used. SoGEA is ordered on its own, with no line rental.
The phone-line version is on its way out in any case. Openreach plans to retire the old phone network, and with it ISDN, on 31 January 2027. If you are still paying for FTTC with a phone line nobody uses, moving it to SoGEA removes the rental. If a number does live on that line, it needs to move first: we port it to a hosted phone service before the old line is retired, so calls keep coming in. Our PSTN switch-off guide covers what else to check before then.
SoGEA vs FTTP
FTTP is fibre all the way into the building, with no copper anywhere. Openreach describes it as its fastest and most reliable broadband, at up to 1,600 Mbps download, with five times fewer faults than copper connections. Upload speeds are far higher too.
If your address can get FTTP, take it. SoGEA is the right choice where full fibre has not reached you yet, and you can move up to FTTP later without changing provider when it arrives. For the full comparison, including SoADSL for addresses with no fibre at all, see SoGEA, FTTP and SoADSL explained.
Can your address get SoGEA?
Openreach still describes fibre to the cabinet as its most widely available type of broadband, so where full fibre has not arrived, SoGEA is usually what is on offer. Availability is decided street by street, and sometimes building by building on the same estate, so the only way to know is to check the exact address. Every order with us starts with that check, which also tells you the speed to expect.
What SoGEA costs
We do not publish broadband prices, because the right product and term depend on the address. The monthly charge and the installation charge are confirmed in writing before the order is placed. There is no line rental, so if you are comparing SoGEA with what you pay now, add the broadband and the phone line together.
Ordering SoGEA with us
Business broadband usually takes 10 to 15 working days from order to a working line. If you are replacing an existing connection, the old one stays up until the new one is tested. We supply, configure and manage the business router, with one static IP address as standard, and carry the connection over BT 21CN interconnects onto our own core network. Faults go to our service desk in Stockton-on-Tees, where a person answers within three rings and chases the carrier for you.
We do this for businesses across the North East, including Stockton, Hartlepool, Sunderland and Durham. Find out what your address can get on our business broadband page, or call us on 01642 661888.