fibre splicing course uk The relative costs involved in connecting subscribers to fiber networks can be deceptive. The critical element when evaluating fiber connections to make in the drops to the premises or even inside homes in an FTTX installation is not materials, but time.
Fiber splicing technicians have specialized training that makes them expensive when compared to someone simply plugging things in. 80% of costs for an FTTP deployment go to labor.
As it turns out, fusion splicing makes a lot of sense for trunk fibers and locations where there are anywhere from 48 to 192 fibers to splice. In the drop locations, where there may be only one or two splices at each location, the setup time for each location may negate any cost savings from fusion splicing.
A single fusion splice may be something like $.50 vs. a mechanical splice of $5-12. On the surface of it, fusion splicing is less expensive. But when you add in the cost of the setup time for one splice, it more than negates the cost savings of the splice by adding the labor time. At $60-120/hr, a fusion splice in a drop location will cost $30-$60 labor plus the splicing cost.
A mechanical splice would also require cable prep time, plus the $5 - $12 connector price. Even less expensive than that is using pre-terminated fiber cable. At the cost of a little more careful planning as to lengths of fibers needed, pre-terminated fibers can be installed quickly and with no training.
In the charts below from the Fiber Optic Association you will see the setup times and task times required for fusion splicing.
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