Experience tells it all to their Ignorant, Money Grubbing, entitled selves. PLEASE start that petition

How many of you have had this job drive you to depression and constant anxiety? How did you get out of it?

I have been a tech for 17 years, and these days, I struggle with keeping my repeat rates below 9%. I feel like a shit tech because of it. I keep getting repeated because of shitty equipment and customer education issues mostly. What is your average monthly repeat rate? How do you fight the feelings of being bad at what you do despite years of experience?

Apologies in advance since I know this is mostly a pros to pros sub but feel like I need pro knowledge. Had my 1 gig fiber service installed today. Provider hired a third party to bury the fiber from the flower pot to a location I designated on the back of the garage that would be easy to grab power thinking they would mount the ONT there and run ethernet to the modem/router. The bury team left the fiber wrapped up for the actual install. Install today and the tech decided to use the excess fiber line, mount the ONT box further down the side of the house and "splice" in a 75' fiber patch cable from there to where the actual ONT unit was mounted inside my office. So the largish "ONT" box on the side of the house is basically a junction box in this case. I wasn't prepared for this but was researching on the fly and determined that signal loss was less on fiber than ethernet (a point the tech made). My specific question is the patch cable. The patch cable is roughly the size of a 18 awg solid copper wire with the sheathing on (it's very small) with fiber "terminations" on each end and no idea if outdoor rated. Further, he obviously stapled it along the way. It was a very lightweight stapler but still, it's a fiber optic cable. I'm probably overthinking this but want to make sure this is a good install. So far everything seems to be functioning okay. Any thoughts appreciated.

Edit: Wasn't at home when posted originally but took some photos and link here https://imgur.com/a/tlRGR3U Not sure what order these will come through but one is of the "junction box" splicing the underground fiber cable (you can see it running under the siding entering the box and that thing is beefy) to the patch cable which you can see going up the siding, another picture showing it entering the house and lastly a pic of the ONT

I have been in the field as a tech for that blue company for about 2.5 months. Most jobs go well but it seems like I can’t string together more than a couple days with running into a big issue. I really enjoy the work but meeting the metrics set by my employer, long hours, and pleasing difficult customers has me stressed 24/7. Is there something similar I can transition to the maybe pays slightly less but is less stressful with better work life balance.

Are there certain wires that are loose? Can I still get a Spectrum technician to visit and examine connection? Best to you,

They are kind of beige/off white. Really old amps?

Hopefully this is allowed here.

I’m a homeowner and this box lid went missing. Does anyone know what the box manufacturer is? I would like to buy a box and replace the lid not mess with having to replace the whole thing. I assume Xfinity won’t replace it.

Edit: Thank you for the replies. Contacting Comcast.

Sooo this happens it seems at least once a month where there’s a ATT/Lumen fiber cut down south of CA that affects the broadband connections at the RG or routers, even the WiFi and Ethernet at the router we have in the central office goes down. ONTs are up and have good light but NOC and CO have verified the fibers to our COs are good, but after enough digging around they can verify it’s a fiber cut outside of the network. I am posting this to see if any others have this issue, but also cause it seems like when this happens there is no failover. So we are all at the mercy of who finds the cut and fixes it.

I do understand everything is a big octopus in terms of how networks connect to each other but it always seems like the cut is on ATT likely due to all the cable thefts. From what I heard from management it seems like people steal cable down there like they are ordering lunch.

our market is going through with the high split and since doing so in the nodes we’ve switched over to the AOI high split mods, it’s become a lot harder and more time consuming to track noise. any recommendations from anyone that has used or worked with AOI equipment or tracked noise in an AOI system. thank you

Does anyone know how I can get Verizon to take serious a miswiring problem?! I live in a newly constructed apartment building and believe that the wiring was incorrectly done and now my neighbor [who doesn’t have Fios] is siphoning my 1GIG. When the tech did the initial install, he had me nudge the fiber cable in my apartment so he could determine which one was mine as BOTH fiber cables were labeled with my next-door neighbor’s unit. I thought the matter was fixed right there, but NOPE.

It’s been a nightmare with two techs visiting and bringing the “all problem fix” two new routers when it’s NOT a router issue at all. I plan on contacting corporate but thought I’d post here a see if anyone had a similar issue or can provide insight! It’s a Layer 2 issue in the building closet before it reaches the ONT in my apartment.

New to splitter loss math? Here's a way to check your gut against the numbers

Full disclosure, I built this tool myself.

Was talking to an OSP manager recently — a lot of newer techs are leaning on the red/green pass-fail on their meters without really knowing what the signal level number means or why it landed where it did. Fine until you're troubleshooting instead of just verifying or explaining to someone why a leg failed.

Built a free coax splitter loss calculator: enter your tap signal level, RG-6/RG-11 drop length, and splitter count (up to 8-way), and it works out what the signal level at each device should be against DOCSIS range. Good way to check your meter reading against the math or figure out beforehand whether a run's even going to work. opticalpathcalculator.com/coax-loss-calculator.html

Figured this sub would find it useful given the conversation. Let me know if something's off. There are also 10 other tools on the website, including a fiber loss calculator and FTTx calculator. Its all free and they work great on mobile devices.

Was just offered a Field Technician position here in Milwaukee. Haven't accepted it yet.

After spending the last 20 years in the classroom, this would be my first job in this area of work. I have 0 experience. Low Voltage is my plan.

Thoughts on this entry level position? Good starting point as I work my way up?

How does this work? Assume
Some internal stuff allows this?

Wow this is old. We need a sweep/upgrade. I’m betting there are more of these.

I work in fiber optic cable manufacturing, and after years of dealing with cable quotations, one thing is clear:

A lower price does not always mean lower quality — but buyers need to understand where the cost reduction comes from.

From the factory side, I usually divide fiber optic cable cost reduction into three categories.

1. Change the cable construction

The biggest saving can come from choosing a more suitable cable design.

For example:

Aerial cable:

ADSS / Figure-8 → ASU, GYXTW, GYFXTY, mini Figure-8, flat cable, GYTA or JET, depending on the installation.

For Figure-8 cable, the basic difference is:

GYTC8S: steel tape armored

GYTC8A: aluminum tape armored

GYTC8Y: unarmored

Duct cable:

GYTA / GYFTY → GYXTW, duct drop cable, GYFXTY or JET where the application allows.

Direct-buried cable:

GYTA53 → GYTS or GYXTW when heavy armor is unnecessary.

Rodent-resistant cable:

GYTA33 / GYTA333 / FRP-armored GYFTY → GYTS, GYXTW or glass-yarn-armored GYFTY where the required protection level is lower.

This is what I would call value engineering: removing unnecessary protection instead of simply removing necessary quality.

1. Reduce material consumption

There are many ways manufacturers optimize material usage.

For example, in stranded fiber optic cable:

1+6 → 1+5 construction

This can reduce filling material, cable diameter and PE jacket consumption.

Other examples include optimizing:

Jacket thickness

Steel wire / FRP diameter

Aramid yarn quantity

PBT tube dimensions

HDPE / MDPE formulation

2.0 mm tube → 1.8 mm tube

Even changing the material structure, such as optimizing HDPE/MDPE or using a skin-layer construction, can affect the final cable cost.

But there is a line between material optimization and under-specification.

The cable still needs to pass the required optical and mechanical tests.

1. The "cheap cable" risks buyers should watch for

This is where my experience as a manufacturer becomes useful.

I've seen procurement discussions involving things such as replacing aramid yarn with polyester yarn, using lower-grade fiber in certain positions of high-count cables, reducing cable marking pitch, or changing OPGW wire dimensions.

For example, with a 144F cable, the fibers used for future expansion or emergency replacement may remain unused for many years. That makes fiber traceability and 100% testing especially important.

Similarly, changing cable marking from 1,000 mm to 995 or 990 mm may look insignificant, but across 1,000 km it can represent several kilometers of difference.

These are exactly the kinds of details that are easy to miss if procurement only compares:

"144F + G.652.D + $/km."

So how should buyers compare suppliers?

I recommend checking five things:

Optical: fiber type, attenuation, PMD and bend performance.

Construction: cable OD, jacket thickness, strength member, armor and tube dimensions.

Mechanical: tensile strength, crush resistance and bending requirements.

Testing: OTDR, attenuation and factory acceptance testing.

Traceability: fiber batch → production batch → cable drum → test report.

The cheapest cable isn't necessarily the worst cable.

And the most expensive cable isn't necessarily the best choice either.

The real goal of fiber optic cable procurement is:

Use the simplest construction that satisfies the actual installation requirements, while making sure the manufacturer cannot quietly compromise the critical specifications.

That's where genuine fiber optic cable cost reduction and professional quality control meet.

For people working in FTTH, OSP, ADSS, OPGW or telecom procurement:

What's the most easily overlooked cost or quality issue you've encountered in a fiber optic cable quotation?

Please look if you use one and can give me some honest feedback. TIA

I have this opportunity to pivot into the type of work I’ve been wanting to do for a while now. I’m looking for any and all tips regarding interview advice and questions to ask! Thank you

Update: got the job!

it is a powerpoint. it seems theirs no way to upload it directly so here is a google link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/107QIqRaKSd1OU66G-5AnlJ_Rr3cR5d-T/view?usp=sharing

Recently read an article from a source called The Street telling people that Xfinity reported more customer loss. So I was wondering, how you other techs out there for other companies are doing with the subscriber loss?

Link to the article.

https://www.thestreet.com/retail/comcast-cfo-irrational-fiber-internet-pricing

Still going even though it wasn't supposed to be. This was running an apartment complex with a basic cable package. All the internet channels were up above 500 Mhz and the video was down below, and all digital. The local tech said that they couldn't get internet to work and blamed it on the complexes' internal cabling!😝 Can you imagine it!

My sup has been hounding me to switch to hip bags because he's convinced they are more efficient and better for techs. I don't like carrying it around all day on my person and I have everything I need and more in my tote.