How Does FIOS work?

 

Today we had a service call at our house from a technician from Verizon FIOS to install a new ONT - Optical network terminal, which is on the outside of the house, and to remove the old power supply and back up battery in the basement.  The technician was really nice, very professional and really patient with all my questions!  I had a lot of questions about how the FIOS fiber optic system works.  I was amazed to hear that inside the thick black cable that comes into the house from the telephone pole only contains a single, thin, optical fiber!  When he was done and waiting for a call back, he said he wanted to show me something. 

He had a thin white coil of wire and a pair of wire cutters.  He removed the outer sheath, and then the insulation, and there inside was this incredibly thin piece of glass fiber.  He then got a special light source used for testing.  Apparently the optical signal is not in the visible spectrum - our eyes cannot see the "light."  But his special light transmitted red light and when he connected the light to one end of the fiber cable, we could see red light in the single fiber.  I did this shot, and then asked him if he could point the end of the fiber right at me.  Wow!  The result is the first shot in this post.  Amazing!  What a great lesson, and I am so thankful for him taking the time to explain this all to me. Cool, huh?