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Stupid question, but I had better ask..."broken fibres"?

Seyley12 — Wed, 23 Sep 2020 08:08:57 GMT

I've had my FF installation completed but with difficulty as Openreach put the wrong numbers and serial numbers to kits being installed. Separate story.

But as part of that exercise the installer was going to (I assume) the sub-box/station and finishing off the test. As a throw away comment, he said ' I hope I don't break/cut any of the fibres as I tidy up the cabling' but it should be working at a decent speed now!!!

Well my connection is a consistant 890mbps with a 4 ms ping, so I'm content.

But is it possible that a few strands of fibre being accidently broken or cut would effect the speed of the 'connection' or did I misunderstand?

Re: Stupid question, but I had better ask..."broken fibres"?

licquorice — Wed, 23 Sep 2020 08:17:12 GMT

There are not 'strands' of fibre in the cable. There is a single fibre which is is about the size of a human hair. Any physical damage to the fibre will cause total loss of service.

Re: Stupid question, but I had better ask..."broken fibres"?

Seyley12 — Thu, 24 Sep 2020 13:02:49 GMT

Laughing, thanks for the reply...

Re: Stupid question, but I had better ask..."broken fibres"?

busterboy1 — Thu, 24 Sep 2020 13:17:00 GMT

@Seyley12

Good question really and @licquorice answered correctly as usual .. 😁

Fibre when stripped looks a little like this pictured below. (Yes I did it)😋

Inside those green, blue & orange are tiny strands of fibre as quoted no larger in diameter than a strand of hair.

Only one strand will supply you're premises which of course is quite amazing IMO.

Re: Stupid question, but I had better ask..."broken fibres"?

busterboy1 — Thu, 24 Sep 2020 13:22:59 GMT

@Seyley12

They are spliced together with an expensive splicer costing anywhere in the region up to £10k in some cases.

Here are the contractors working on my build showing the single strands being spliced together.😉