Verizon Fios - Fiber to the Home

by striker

On Long Island you have two choices for Internet access: the Dolan-Dictated Optimum Online or Verizon DSL.  Cable is faster, but ridiculously overpriced.  Verizon is cheap, but uploads are slow.  Now, there is a better choice.

Verizon has begun deploying in limited areas an entire residential fiber infrastructure.  The offering now includes three bandwidth options: 5/2, 15/2, and 30/5.  5/2 costs the same as DSL, but has kicking upload speed.  In less than year, Verizon will also begin offering TV service over the line - competing directly with satellite and cable.

My big question was simple.  Why??

Verizon was formed through traditional, old-school phone companies.  They got dragged into the DSL business kicking and screaming, forced by competition from the cable companies.  After plenty of research the answer became clearer.

The Telecommunication Act of 1996 forced all of the phone companies to play nice in the sandbox and share their copper.  All kinds of competition opened up, allowing the average consumer to choose their own local and long distance companies, while forcing phone companies to foot the bill to maintain the infrastructure.  Maintaining the tangled web of copper phone lines is very expensive.  Most of the copper hanging today is old and noisy.  It needs to be replaced.  That's gonna cost a lot of money.

So how do you rid yourself of pesky competition and aging copper?  One word: Fiber.

Fiber optic cable has huge bandwidth capabilities and doesn't degrade.  Newly installed fiber optics belong to Verizon and are not considered public or municipal lines.  While it probably cost a fortune up front to roll out, in the long term fiber will require fewer maintenance runs.  Lowering operating costs raises stock value.  Sweeet.

Tech Talk

The technology is pretty straightforward.

At the Central Office (CO) is a box called an optical line terminal.  It acts like a gateway, taking feeds from the voice switches, Internet routers, and eventually TV signal head ends.

All of these signals are WDM coupled and sent on their way via laser wavelengths: 1310 nm for upstream voice and data, 1490 nm for downstream voice and data, and 1550 nm for downstream video.

To be clear, the voice signal is not VoIP.  The voice signal is modulated over the fiber.

From the CO, fiber feeder lines travel the poles to local Fiber Distribution Hubs (FDH) which can support up to 216 homes.  From there the lines snake out to 12-port distribution terminals placed every few hundred feet that connect to the homes.

On the side of the residence is mounted the Optical Network Terminal (ONT).  This box looks like a bigger version of the regular gray Network Interface Device (NID) where copper terminates.  The color is the only similarity.

Inside the box is a plug where the fiber terminates.  This connection is closed up and is only supposed to be accessed by Verizon.  Also in the box are an RJ45 port and four RJ11 ports.

The technician will run Cat 5 from this box to your computer, and tie your existing home wiring into the RJ11 connectors.

The technician will also mount inside your house an AC adapter and a UPS.  Verizon claims that the UPS will provide five hours of operations.  The AC adapter and UPS are wired back to the ONT to provide power and system status.

Internet connectivity is still controlled via PPPoE.  Verizon Fios appears to use the 70.104.0.0/13 block.

The final action happens when the technician uses the copper line to dial-up to the CO and switch the phone signal over to the fiber.  He then cuts down the copper from the house to the pole.  Bye bye competition.

One of the great cost savers for Verizon is that the fiber connections from the CO to the residence are all passive - no powered or active components.  Nothing to burn out.  The Verizon NOC can proactively monitor the health of the UPS and ONT.

The price is right, the speed is excellent, and service has been robust so far.  Finally, having fiber optics terminating at your house is just darn geek-cool.

For more info straight from the horses mouth, see: www.nefc.com/2004_Downloads/FTTP_NEC_2004.zip