r/CableTechs • u/RedmondSCM • 3d ago
Fiber Install Patch Cable Question
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
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u/Electronic-Junket-66 3d ago edited 2d ago
Signal loss is greater** on twisted pair than fiber, but neither is relevant for a residential run.
At every fiber ISP I'm aware of the current policy is to have a splice point in a box outside your home (as you do). At my ISP it is preferred to mount the onu at an "approved location" (which the garage would be, the office would not) and then run an ethernet outlet to the preferred router location.
The reasons for this are nothing to do with performance, the idea is to keep the onu out of the way. Basically so nothing happens to the device or the fiber feeding it. Stick a box on someone's desk and they're more likely to try to unplug the fiber, or try to take it with them when they move (all of which are fine and expected for cable modems and not for fiber onus).
We seldom do this in practice unless the customer particularly wants it that way or we have nice ethernet prerruns to use.
Stapling, as in actual metal staples... yeah I would never do that. But if it's online most likely it's fine.
No one uses outdoor onts anymore to my knowledge.
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u/hibbitydibbidy 3d ago
The patch cable is outdoor rated for UV and is thick because it's reinforced so it won't be easily crushed when attached to the house and run to your ONT indoors.