AT&T Fiber

[gar]

190207-2359 EST

By looking at my utility poles how can I tell if AT&T has installed fiber optic cable in my location?

I have not been aware of any new lines installed in many years. To the best that I can see there is Comcast and the new (meaning 10 years or more old) copper cable that AT&T installed. Prior to that the phone cable was Mich Bell from the 1950s. I don't see a third cable.

AT&T claims fiber is here.

The last that I knew about was fiber to data concentrators, and then old copper to your home.

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[hbiss]

Everybody does things differently, but with fiber there is no expansion saddle made in the cable after each pole attachment like you have to do for hard line. Around the pole and attachment you might see a yellow sleeve to protect the cable and indicate that it's fiber.

-Hal

 

[gar]

190207-2454 EST

hbiss:

I ordered AT&Ts special offer today and there claim is fiber. Installation was to be next Wednesday. Now delayed to a week from Saturday. Unless fiber was hidden in part of the last copper cable, then I don't really think it is actually here. Might mean they have to install the fiber, and thus a reason for the installation time change. I will look for yellow covers. Thanks.

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[kwired]

Can't tell you how well AT&T knows their stuff. Here the local telco is Frontier. I wish they would disappear, at least in the rural areas, we have worst service around, nearby communities all have smaller local companies and many have the newest technologies, I'm still supplied with a ~50 year old cable that occasionally has failures during wet weather, all they do is patch it when it really needs replaced.

Even their DSL service gets a lot of complaints that it isn't working quite frequently. I am too far out and can't get any internet from them and have to use a wireless provider.

That said, when my son moved out and into his own place, they talked him into subscribing to a particular internet package. When the tech never arrived we eventually called customer service to find out the package subscibed to wasn't available in the area - it needs fiber to be eligible - which you would hope they would have known wasn't available the first time around. They don't have any fiber for local lines other then to a few select places like the local school, maybe the hospital.

 

[zbang]

I ordered AT&Ts special offer today and there claim is fiber.

Lots of what AT&T claims is "fiber" is fiber-to-the-node, not fiber-to-the-house; the last few hundred feet are Good Ol' Copper. Look around for a street box with an electric meter on it and a bundle of cable running down the nearest pole.

You can also look around for these large cable "thimbles" over head where extra fiber cable is turned back. I might be able to get a photo of one later.

 

[hbiss]

https://www.att.com/shop/internet/gigapower/coverage-map.html

Zoom in and have a look. Looks like the nearest is Detroit.

I agree that these companies will claim fiber-to-the-node as having fiber. AT&T Uverse is VDSL unless you are in one of their areas that have FTTH (which I think you are hoping for). As far as I know Verizon is the only one doing that with their Fios.

-Hal

 

[OldSparks]

I have AT&T FIOS at my house - sorta! The fiber ends about 3500 feet from here, then TWO pair of copper conductors come to the house. After a rather rough start, the system is now solid (a significant amount of copper circuit improvements were required in the first year or so).

I pay for 17MB/S and actually get 22 to 23 MB/s download, and 1.5 to 2.2 MB/S upload.

I am in the unincorporated area of the county. My son lives within the city limits, has the same system, and his is ridiculously fast. But with the housing density in his area, AT&T can well afford to bring the fiber switch right into the ‘hood.

 

[retirede]

I have AT&T FIOS at my house - sorta! The fiber ends about 3500 feet from here, then TWO pair of copper conductors come to the house. After a rather rough start, the system is now solid (a significant amount of copper circuit improvements were required in the first year or so).

I pay for 17MB/S and actually get 22 to 23 MB/s download, and 1.5 to 2.2 MB/S upload.

I am in the unincorporated area of the county. My son lives within the city limits, has the same system, and his is ridiculously fast. But with the housing density in his area, AT&T can well afford to bring the fiber switch right into the ‘hood.

We are very fortunate in our area. The rural telephone coop formed a subsidiary that is an ISP. Farmers out in the middle of nowhere can get gigabit fiber to their house for less than $100 per month.

 

[hbiss]

I have AT&T FIOS at my house - sorta! The fiber ends about 3500 feet from here, then TWO pair of copper conductors come to the house. After a rather rough start, the system is now solid (a significant amount of copper circuit improvements were required in the first year or so).

Sorry, you don't have Fios. There is no such thing as copper from a Fios ONT 3500 feet away. How would they run Ethernet on that? You have crappy DSL. That's why you are only getting 22 down.

-Hal

 

[kwired]

We are very fortunate in our area. The rural telephone coop formed a subsidiary that is an ISP. Farmers out in the middle of nowhere can get gigabit fiber to their house for less than $100 per month.

I don't know what they are paying for it, but a few of the neighboring areas with their small telco's all have fiber to the house. Even if you only subscribe to POTS you have no choice, there is fiber to your house. My guess is these smaller companies applied for grants or other funds and got them, and improved their systems. Where I am is a larger company, not based in the area at all. We can't even get upgrades to make POTS work better than it does They do have DSL in town and out however far it works, but in past few years even it has issues and people have been complaining it don't work at all at times. They simply don't care about the small market they have here and won't invest or make any improvements to it, just put band aids on things that break down.

 

[hbiss]

That's the way it is with Verizon here. If you want any kind of service from them (voice, internet or TV) it's via fiber to the house. They have abandoned the old copper and are letting it rot on most cases except instances where copper POTS has to be used like fire and security systems.

Our other provider is Cablevision with fiber-to-the-node and coax to the house. Their internet service is actually faster than Verizon fiber.

-Hal

 

[rambojoe]

this morning the news announced sprint is suing at&t (or vice verse) for claiming 5g when it is only 4g. they said 5g is only exclusively availible and in certain areas...

 

[K8MHZ]

Even if you only subscribe to POTS you have no choice, there is fiber to your house.

POTS needs -48v from the telco to function. How do you get that through fiber? POTS needs no electrical service to the house to function. How does that work with fiber? I am pretty sure it's VOIP, not POTS you are getting.

 

[LarryFine]

POTS needs -48v from the telco to function. How do you get that through fiber? POTS needs no electrical service to the house to function. How does that work with fiber? I am pretty sure it's VOIP, not POTS you are getting.

The interface between the incoming fiber and the interior copper powers the phones.

 

[ggunn]

Lots of what AT&T claims is "fiber" is fiber-to-the-node, not fiber-to-the-house; the last few hundred feet are Good Ol' Copper.

It's all in what you call it. Years ago in the Bad Old Days of dialup, my ISP rolled out what they called "cable modem" but it still connected to the phone lines. I called up their clueless customer "service" line and challenged them on it but the guy I talked to didn't know the difference.

 

[kwired]

POTS needs -48v from the telco to function. How do you get that through fiber? POTS needs no electrical service to the house to function. How does that work with fiber? I am pretty sure it's VOIP, not POTS you are getting.

The interface between the incoming fiber and the interior copper powers the phones.

Yes.

Old landline phones work on this system. They leave all interior telephone wiring as it was and just tie what originally left the old demarc location into the new conversion equipment.

With this system you have no phone when power goes out unless you have a backup UPS on the conversion equipment or standby system that also powers the conversion equipment.

I can't remember exactly what they do if you subscribe to internet services, seems that Cat 5/6 was run to a router location though. I haven't seen or had to do anything with too many of them just yet so not too familiar with what was commonly done.

 

[hbiss]

POTS needs -48v from the telco to function. How do you get that through fiber? POTS needs no electrical service to the house to function. How does that work with fiber? I am pretty sure it's VOIP, not POTS you are getting.

Come on, you're smarter than that.:happyyes: Fiber connects to an ONT (Optical Network Terminal) located in the building someplace or on the side of the house and that is house powered and has backup battery. This is just like a coax cable modem (EMTA). Both have three outputs- POTS, ethernet and an "F"connector for TV. From there you do what you normally did for your phones, internet and TV. Usual phones and wiring, router and switch for internet and RG-6 for TV

There used to be what is called network powered broadband that did use a house unit that was powered from the outside plant but I don't think that lasted too long. The NEC has an Article regarding it.

-Hal

 

[K8MHZ]

The interface between the incoming fiber and the interior copper powers the phones.

Then it's not POTS. POTS does not rely on POCO power.

 

[K8MHZ]

Come on, you're smarter than that.:happyyes: Fiber connects to an ONT (Optical Network Terminal) located in the building someplace or on the side of the house and that is house powered and has backup battery. This is just like a coax cable modem (EMTA). Both have three outputs- POTS, ethernet and an "F"connector for TV. From there you do what you normally did for your phones, internet and TV. Usual phones and wiring, router and switch for internet and RG-6 for TV

There used to be what is called network powered broadband that did use a house unit that was powered from the outside plant but I don't think that lasted too long. The NEC has an Article regarding it.

-Hal

If there is a modem involved, it's not POTS. POTS is analog.

Plain old telephone service (POTS), or plain ordinary telephone service, is a retronym for voice-grade telephone service employing analog signal transmission over copper loops

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plain_old_telephone_service

 

[kwired]

Then it's not POTS. POTS does not rely on POCO power.

Is not conventional POTS where the copper pair runs all the way to a central station. To end user equipment designed for POTS still functions the same way. I don't know what to call it, might be a name though.

And true POTS still generally relies on POCO to keep batteries charged