In 2023, the spigot opened. Toward the end of the year, the promised federal funding for infrastructure projects began flowing. Now it’s time to get to work.

The funds necessary to expand broadband and repair and modernize infrastructure are now available. The next question—how effective will this spending be?—will not be answered for years.

Marketplace pandemonium

The hype around the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law’s Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment funding caused confusion in the marketplace. Headlines flashed about the size of the projects and volume of work coming. The criers said that we need more products. Excited manufacturers and distributors started an ordering frenzy that led to shortages, with year-long lead times for cables and other components. 

Everyone finally realized that the actual projects would be waiting many months before funding arrived, so the bubble blew, resulting in warehouses bursting at the seams and layoffs. At least the material will be available when it’s needed in the near future.

The workforce was also the subject of a lot of hype. Claims of workforce deficits of 200,000 to 850,000 workers made the news. However, there wasn’t a clear idea how many techs actually existed until the Bureau of Labor Statistics created a new job category for telecommunications technicians, including fiber and wireless techs. With new data, it was easy to understand that expanding the current workforce to meet future needs was easily done with current resources. (See “What Is a Fiber Tech Anyway?”, ELECTRICAL CONTRACTOR, December 2023.)

The rest of the fiber optic market just keeps plugging along. The internet’s growth continues, primarily driven by streaming video services, requiring more networks and data centers. After years of promotion, 5G has settled down and hardly rates a notice. Office buildings continue to be half-full, but the premises cabling market is running on hospitals, educational facilities, hotels and manufacturing buildings.

Fiber to the home (FTTH) also continues to grow. Projects aimed at expanding or upgrading broadband by any type of service provider seem to be mainly FTTH. The claims that 5G wireless could replace FTTH seem to have been disproven. One article in a major newspaper claimed the biggest effect of 4G over 4G/LTE was its ability to drain a smartphone battery faster, not provide higher speeds. My own attempt to try a 5G home network proved futile as the system could not work in my urban neighborhood.

Fiber and equipment outlook

Fiber optic equipment manufacturers have been working overtime to improve products. Some new ones have been extremely successful. Splice-on connectors attached with a fusion splicer have become the favorite termination style for their performance, reliability and low cost. Fusion splicers have also become better and less expensive, making them a necessity for most installers, but the question today is whether to buy a single-­fiber splicer or a ribbon fiber splicer for the new cable types.

When it comes to fiber optic cables, there’s good and bad news. The good news is cables are getting smaller, lighter and lower in cost, even with higher numbers of fibers in the cable. Flexible ribbons are making older, hard ribbons obsolete because they allow more fibers in a smaller cable. The traditional 250-micron buffer coating diameter on fibers is being reduced to 180–200 microns to fit more fibers into smaller cables.

The bad news about cables is that the technology used to make them smaller, lighter and cheaper reduces their ruggedness. Until recently, cables were really rugged, but the higher-density, thinner cable jacket and smaller strength members means the protection for the fibers inside the cable is reduced. 

From the field, I hear of fibers being broken because cables are being pulled with too much tension or bent beyond their minimum bend diameter. Installers must pay close attention to the cable specifications. In addition, flex ribbons and smaller-­diameter fibers affect the type of fusion splicer needed, because the fixturing for cleavers and splicers is different.

Cable plant restoration

The final topic I want to mention is fiber optic cable plant restoration. Over the years, I’ve been contacted by many government agencies asking for information, advice or help, but this year there was a new one—FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Last year had a number of disasters: wildfires, hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, earthquakes—you name it, we had it. FEMA contacted FOA for assistance in understanding fiber optic communications restoration after disasters. Our discussion also covered preparing for disasters, a topic I plan to discuss in a future column in 2024.

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