is it necessary to have xstream fiber installation at all?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Rama Venkat
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Rama Venkat

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Another 2 questions. I am having copper connection to the router for the past more than a decade. Of course the speed was miserably low. Airtel is trying to persuade me to change to stream fiber. But there is a problem. The present copper wire is coming through an internal conduit. 1)do airtel technicians have expertise to draw fibre through the conduit to avoid major structural changes on walls. 2) I am 94 years old and not doing any gaming etc. I do small amount of browsing and email operations. DO I AT ALL NEED FIBRE INSTALLATION?
 
If you do not use the internet to stream movies etc and if the uptime of your existing connection is good, I don't see any reason to switch.
 
Stability of the connection is important. If you are getting continuous internet connection with as little downtime then for the needs specified, you are ok with copper.
However, do note that copper wire over time degrades in quality. In my case the copper wire through conduits for my tv set led to poor signal quality as they were more than 15 years old.
 
Btw no matter what happens, Airtel is phasing out copper so, you will eventually have to switch to fiber.
 
Looks like he was able to downgrade.

Airtel might be planning to remove or discontinue copper based connections at his place. Switching to fiber might be a good idea.
 

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What I have heard or read somewhere, Airtel has planned to close their copper system and move all their old users to fiber. They will persuade you to do the same.
I myself have done wiring of my two floors from inside walls and conduit. Considering the fiber's inability to sharp bends and bend loss, I won't suggest having it inside walls. Better find a place where the fiber can be brought maintaining its possible straight path and from there bring LAN Cat-6 cables inside rooms and halls through coduit.
 
Even when I got my fiber the guys were hesitant to get it through conduits possibly due to bends. So asked them to get wire directly from terrace to my room through a hole.
 
It might make sense to install it at a safe place that doesn't require too much internal wiring and then maybe get their just launched mesh router for wider coverage through the house if required.
 
How prominent will be bend loss ? My Airtel connection from DP till router has around 10 bends and still we get around signal value of -24db .
 
  1. Airtel installation team should be able to pull fiber cable though the same conduit that is used for copper (even after some loss, speed will be better than existing copper) . That's how wires were laid out in my house. They just tied fiber to existing copper wire and pulled it.
  2. Airtel will stop copper at some point of time
  3. For your usage, you can probably use wireless (4G, probably 5G by the time copper is turned off) .
 
@Nithishsaba You are right fiber loss is negligible in most cases. The issue arises when the bend is sharp. Even a 90-degree sharp bend can break the fiber. Practically the bend on conduit is not that sharp if it's not forcefully pulled from ends.
 
Fiber can go around bends provided the cable itself is not stretched tight in an absolute 90 deg angle. If it is goes loose around the bend it won't break. Also, fiber loops should not wound tighter than 10 cm in diameter.
 

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