Fibor Internet and TV tech?

[Chris Freeland]

Here in Chattanooga tn we have a new fiber tv, internet and phone service from are local utility company "EPB". In a news story on are local news they stated that for internet, no modem is required, the fiber optics line is plugged directly into your router or PC, how does this work? How do you plug a cable designed to carry a signal using a light beam into a router or PC designed to receive a signal over cat 5 or 6 cable which if I am not mistaken delivers the signal via low voltage electricity? Supposedly at least some tv channels can be received without a STB, how does this work in a fiber to home environment? Inquiring minds need to know .

 

[LonghornXP]

Here in Chattanooga tn we have a new fiber tv, internet and phone service from are local utility company "EPB". In a news story on are local news they stated that for internet, no modem is required, the fiber optics line is plugged directly into your router or PC, how does this work? How do you plug a cable designed to carry a signal using a light beam into a router or PC designed to receive a signal over cat 5 or 6 cable which if I am not mistaken delivers the signal via low voltage electricity? Supposedly at least some tv channels can be received without a STB, how does this work in a fiber to home environment? Inquiring minds need to know .

I think the Optical Network Terminal they will install at each home will have a Cat5e output which can be used to connect your computer or router to the internet "without" the use of a seperate internet modem.

With cable you have a coax cable connected to your cable modem and your cable modem has an ethernet jack to connect to your computer or router.

With DSL you have a phone cable that connects to your DSL modem and the DSL modem has an ethernet jack on it to connect to your computer or router.

In the case of Verizon FIOS they can run an ethernet jack from your ONT to anywhere in your home and they provide a free wireless router which acts as your internet modem.

Simply put your local provider is doing what FIOS is doing "except" the system they use can work with any router most likely using DHCP. I've also heart of a few companies installing their ONT which has a built-in wifi broadcaster so that any computer with a wireless network adapter can access the internet via a user ID and password. This is rare though as the benefit of fiber internet is speeds that go quite a bit beyond what wireless technology can handle.

I hope this gives you a better idea of what they are talking about. I might also google the company and see if they have more specific information to answer your questions.

 

[bebop]

Simply put: there must be a fiber transceiver in there somewhere for it to work - whether is it already provided or whether you need to provide one.

If you had to get one, you ought to call the provider to see what is needed.

You cannot plug in fiber to a computer directly without hardware to convert it from light to copper signal (a transceiver).

 

[Chris Freeland]

Thanks guys this is what I suspected, and since asking the question I have used google to research fiber to the home and how it works and I discovered basically the same thing you guys said. Now if EPB would hurry up already and get it to my house. They hope to have all of Chattanooga and a couple neighboring towns connected by this time next year, currently their Fi service is limited to only a few lucky neighborhoods. It could be up to 3 years before they reach some of the outlying areas in EPB's service area.