The FTTH service that was installed at my home five years ago is great. I have 1 Gig service and love it. Since I work from home, this hair-sized piece of fiber is my vital lifeline to my customers, coworkers and loved ones.
When the installers came out to place the drop and hook up my Optical Network Terminal (ONT), I was very interested to see what equipment and drop cable media they would install. Since I am in the telecom industry, I love to geek out on this stuff and was looking over the installer’s shoulder the whole time. The young man doing the install was extremely friendly and outgoing and did not mind me observing. One thing I noticed almost immediately is that he simply drilled a hole in my wall and pushed the drop through. Hmmm…what happens if they need to do some kind of testing? I guess they will have to come inside my house with their muddy boots. Inside, they placed a small ONT on the wall, and used a mechanical connector on the drop cable coming directly into the house.
Fingers crossed – we have had flawless service for five years and have virtually never lost service. We recently decided to have our house painted to keep the stucco in good repair. I went out on a walkthrough with the painting contractor and noticed that the cable jacket had pulled out of the wall and the fiber was exposed. The only thing protecting the fiber is some RTV caulking. Yikes…this is a recipe for disaster. The only thing keeping me from losing service was ten cents worth of silicone! No strain relief, and no quick fix if it gets damaged. I obviously told the contractor to be very careful around my fiber drop.
What could they have done better? A test access point (TAP) on the outside of the home would have been a much better solution. The TAP provides several key features:
- Connection from the OSP drop cable to the indoor jumper cable on the outside of the home provides external testing access (more convenient for techs and subscriber).
- If the indoor cable becomes damaged, a new jumper can be installed without the need to send out a tech with mechanical splice connectors (quicker restoration).
- Strain relief for the OSP cable and ISP jumper so that they do not pull out from the wall (eliminates possible down time from exposed fiber).
Fast internet powered by fiber is awesome, but fiber is fragile and needs to be protected. Contact Clearfield about our various TAP box solutions, including our Deploy Reels and several box options.
By Tom Warren
For 20 years, Tom Warren has worked with Clearfield in the engineering world of telecommunications as an Applications Engineer, CATV-MSO Market Manager, Sales Engineer and Regional Sales Manager. Tom’s expertise includes in-depth knowledge of FTTH, HFC, DAS and WDM fiber optic solutions.