FTTLA refers to "Fibre To The Last Amplifier". Classic analogue cable television

Cable television

Cable television is a system of providing television programs to consumers via radio frequency signals transmitted to televisions through coaxial cables or digital light pulses through fixed optical fibers located on the subscriber's property, much like the over-the-air method used in traditional...

 trunks used several amplifiers at intervals in cascade, each of which degrades the signal. FTTLA replaces the coaxial cable

Coaxial cable

Coaxial cable, or coax, has an inner conductor surrounded by a flexible, tubular insulating layer, surrounded by a tubular conducting shield. The term coaxial comes from the inner conductor and the outer shield sharing the same geometric axis...

 all along the line to the last amplifier (towards the subscriber) with optical fibre. It retains the existing most expensive part of the access network

Access network

An access network is that part of a telecommunications network which connects subscribers to their immediate service provider. It is contrasted with the core network, which connects local providers to each other...

, the coaxial cables for the "last mile

Last mile

The "last mile" or "last kilometer" is the final leg of delivering connectivity from a communications provider to a customer. The phrase is therefore often used by the telecommunications and cable television industries. The actual distance of this leg may be considerably more than a mile,...

" or "last metres" connected with the subscriber.

Fibre to the last amplifier improves scalability

Scalability

In electronics scalability is the ability of a system, network, or process, to handle growing amount of work in a graceful manner or its ability to be enlarged to accommodate that growth...

 (performance and reliability) when new services such as triple play

Triple play (telecommunications)

In telecommunications, triple play service is a marketing term for the provisioning of two bandwidth-intensive services, high-speed Internet access and television, and a less bandwidth-demanding service, telephone, over a single broadband connection. Triple play focuses on a combined business...

 are introduced.
From the optical sender to the node, fibre which is split by 4, or by 8 depending on the distance, and on the output power of the optical sender (from 6 to 16 dBm).
Intermodulation

Intermodulation

Intermodulation or intermodulation distortion is the amplitude modulation of signals containing two or more different frequencies in a system with nonlinearities...

 and carrier-to-noise ratio

Carrier-to-noise ratio

In telecommunications, the carrier-to-noise ratio, often written CNR or C/N, is the signal-to-noise ratio of a modulated signal. The term is used to distinguish the CNR of the radio frequency passband signal from the SNR of an analogue base band message signal after demodulation, for example an...

are improved. Other benefits include lower power consumption.