How flexible is the fibre cable ?

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mitchmagi

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How flexible is the fibre cable that is laid in terms of entry into a property and into the house itself to the CPE - conduits / going around corners etc. Can it bend easily ?
 
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The cable can easily bend. The modern fibre is very robust and can go around a tight bend radius of only a couple of cm without breaking.

You still want to avoid sharp bends though since the signal loss increases on sharp bends.

Aim for a bend radius of between 10 and 20 cm for best results.
 
Mine is thin and breaks when you look at it. Very thin and fragile. Patch cables seems stronger.
 
All lies! Light can only travel in straight lines!
 
animal531 said:
All lies! Light can only travel in straight lines!
Click to expand...

You're correct, light can only travel in straight lines but that's the beauty of fibre optics (and glass in general). The internal reflection of the fibre optic glass casing is what allows it to appear as though it's moving in a non-straight fashion from one point of the optic medium to another.

Google "Total internal reflection". or "geometric optics".

https://www.boundless.com/physics/textbooks/boundless-physics-textbook/geometric-optics-24/reflection-refraction-and-dispersion-169/total-internal-reflection-and-fiber-optics-609-6258/
 
down to 5mm bend radius! if they are using bend-insensitive fibre (which they should be!)
 
Every bend will lead to very high signal loss.
I had two slight bends in the fiber installed by Cybersmart in my flat that equated to the same loss as 15km of fiber.

Unless you have fiber specifically designed for "bend insensitive" use, it shouldn't be bent.
Similarly the fiber can be damaged permanently by bends.
 
Gnome said:
Every bend will lead to very high signal loss.
I had two slight bends in the fiber installed by Cybersmart in my flat that equated to the same loss as 15km of fiber.

Unless you have fiber specifically designed for "bend insensitive" use, it shouldn't be bent.
Similarly the fiber can be damaged permanently by bends.
Click to expand...

The accepted practice is to use bend insensitive fibre within the building to negate the exact situation you had, and this bends down to 5mm with very little loss, sounds like you had standard single mode fibre installed.
 
Beats the old days when you looked a fibre wrong and it broke, many late nights spent splicing fibres taught me well :)
 
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