I'm aware of another company that has the 6ft slack philosophy. They
justify it as saving 20% on cable costs. People doing that are nuts.
The cable is practically free compared to the cost of getting it placed.
-Adam
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*From:* AF <[email protected]> on behalf of Carl Peterson
<[email protected]>
*Sent:* Monday, August 18, 2025 6:18 PM
*To:* AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group <[email protected]>
*Subject:* Re: [AFMUG] how is underground FTTH done?
Port Networks is in MD and FL but I live in MN. Fidium is Consolidated
Communications. They do a cheap half assed underground plant
overbuild with no slack or handholes. They do a combined ped with the
old copper and a splice tray in it and just do about a 6' loop of
fiber which they terminate kneeling on the ground next to the ped.
Hopefully it never needs to be serviced in the winter but it sure is a
fast / cheap way to do it.
On Mon, Aug 18, 2025 at 4:09 PM Adam Moffett <[email protected]> wrote:
Carl,
I haven't heard of Fidium. Are you located in Maryland, or is
that a figment of my imagination?
Thanks,
Adam
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*From:* AF <[email protected]> on behalf of Carl Peterson
<[email protected]>
*Sent:* Monday, August 18, 2025 3:17 PM
*To:* AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group <[email protected]>
*Subject:* Re: [AFMUG] how is underground FTTH done?
This might now work in NY where I seem to remember Adam operates,
but Fidium did an interesting half assed fiber deployment in my
neighborhood where they installed secondary drop ducts in the
right of way and just left them stubbed up underground. So say 1
ped which feeds the properties on either side + tw drop ducts in
either direction each which stubs up between the next two houses
so ~ 8-10 subs per ped. When they need to install, they just hook
up a compressor to the sub duct and it blows the dirt up in the
air exposing the drop duct.
On Mon, Aug 18, 2025 at 12:07 PM Adam Moffett
<[email protected]> wrote:
Well, you can't trespass with your service drop cable. If it
crosses someone else's property it needs an easement. I think
most commonly you place a handhole at the property line so you
can hit two houses from one. One box per house might be
necessary in some cases, and there might be cases where you
can hit more than two from one box, but not every time.
They might not have a splitter in that box. It might just
provide a pulling point to get the service drop from there
down the street to another box where the splitter is. It
depends on the density and whether they'd rather load all the
costs up front or push more of the costs into the installation
phase.
When we were small-fries we would push the cost to the
installation so we're not spending money on customers we never
sell. I'm at a bigger outfit now, and they'll make sure
there's a splitter port near every customer, and each one gets
documented as to which house it's for. They'll send info to
the drop contractor telling them exactly which splitter
location to send the drop cable to, and what path it should
take. The light budget is set so you could add a 1x4 at the
house.....a problem we run into is houses divided into
multiple rentals are not always obvious up front, and you find
out about them only when the installer is on site.
As someone said, there are a zillion ways to do it, and
someone does it every which way you can imagine.
-Adam
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*From:* AF <[email protected]> on behalf of Ken Hohhof
<[email protected]>
*Sent:* Monday, August 18, 2025 12:13 PM
*To:* 'AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group' <[email protected]>
*Subject:* Re: [AFMUG] how is underground FTTH done?
OK, that helps. I assume MST avoids every installer having
the equipment and training to do fusion splices.
But I’m still not understanding in an underground scenario,
with a handhole at every passing, what do you splice the drop
cable to, and where? Is there a pre installed fiber stub in
every handhole for that customer, going back to a splitter at
another handhole down the street?
*From:* AF <[email protected]> *On Behalf Of *Josh Luthman
*Sent:* Monday, August 18, 2025 10:40 AM
*To:* AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group <[email protected]>
*Subject:* Re: [AFMUG] how is underground FTTH done?
Splitters are waaay small. Smaller than a standard house key.
What you are looking at is an MST terminal, looks like 8
ports. There can be a splitter inside of that yes. You can
have the MST with 8 fibers splice to another 8 fibers or you
can have what is in your picture have 1 fiber in, split 1x8,
and then have 8 ports out for the installers to simply plug in to.
If that MST is a 1x8, you can have a 1x4 before it, between
the MST and OLT. That makes for OLT -> 1x4 splitter -> 1x8
splitter/MST. That is still a 1x32 split.
On Mon, Aug 18, 2025 at 11:34 AM Ken Hohhof
<[email protected]_> wrote:
I thought PON used like 16:1 or 32:1 splitters, and in
this photo, I assumed that’s what the black boxes were.
*From:* AF <[email protected]_> *On Behalf Of *Josh
Luthman
*Sent:* Monday, August 18, 2025 10:16 AM
*To:* AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group <[email protected]_>
*Subject:* Re: [AFMUG] how is underground FTTH done?
Don't assume that about aerial. That's not how it works.
Don't think about it in terms of taps.
Generally speaking, installations are PON. What we do is
design the fiber so we can hook up 100% of homes. We
assign a color to every house.
The first thing to think about is that you have to access
the individual strand out of the cable, be it
12/24/48/144/etc. That is done with a SpliceCase or you
splice on an MST for an ez mode plug. At Imagine we only
splice - no connectors, no MST, no plugs, etc.
Second thing is that when there's a cable up and down the
road, you just need access to it through the case/MST from
the house. This can be from the house to the handhole
(concrete box in the ground) or you can run it from the
house to the handhole through some 1.25" duct to the next
handhole where there is one case.
I can show you what it looks like if you don't get it yet.
On Mon, Aug 18, 2025 at 11:11 AM Ken Hohhof
<[email protected]_> wrote:
The fiber train left without me, so maybe someone here
can help me understand how the physical installation
is typically done.
I’ve seen aerial fiber and it’s pretty
straightforward, I see splitters up on poles maybe at
each intersection, and to hook up a customer, they run
a drop wire from the nearest splitter to the house.
If take rate is better than expected or a new house is
built, worst case I assume they just add a splitter.
But I also see FTTH deployments going in where they
are boring for duct in the ROW and putting a little
handhole in front of every house. How does this
work? Are they using taps instead of splitters? If
not, when they get a customer install order, do they
pull his drop cable through all the handholes to a
splitter? That doesn’t seem feasible. Are they
dedicating a strand to each house and pulling the main
cable out each time and splicing to that strand? And
what if they estimate the take rate wrong, or a new
house is built?
There’s probably a simple explanation and once someone
enlightens me it will be a Duh! moment.
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--
Carl Peterson
*PORT NETWORKS*
401 E Pratt St, Ste 2553
Baltimore, MD 21202
(410) 637-3707
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Carl Peterson
*PORT NETWORKS*
401 E Pratt St, Ste 2553
Baltimore, MD 21202
(410) 637-3707
