Fiber FAQs

Q. What is fiber-to-the-home?
A: Fiber-to-the-home or FTTH refers to a technology that can be used to provide communications and entertainment services to your home or business. Fiber allows us to provide phone, cable TV and Internet over fiber optic cable which is as thin as a human hair.

Q. What are the benefits of FTTH?
A. The greatest benefit of fiber-to-the-home is the amount of information and services that can be provided over a single connection. Additionally, the services offer great speed and crystal clear connections.

Q. What is different about fiber?
A. Unlike copper or coaxial cable, fiber optic cable cannot provide electrical power to the devices that are connected to it. Therefore, power has to be supplied by an outside source at your home or business. In addition to standard AC power, a battery back-up unit is put in place, inside your house or business to allow telephone service to function in the event of a power outage.

Q. What if my power goes out?
A. If power is interrupted, your battery back-up system will automatically begin doing its job. However, to extend the run time of the batteries and to maintain emergency calling services, only telephone services will be powered. Both Internet and cable television services will be temporarily without power. Generally, this is not a problem because during a power outage, your television and computer will not have power either. It is important to use your telephone for emergencies when in battery back-up mode as battery life is only about 4 hours.

Q. How does FTTH affect Internet?
A. Fiber-to-the-home offers greater bandwidth and the ability for us to provide you more Internet speed. This benefit provides the opportunity for music, movies and a variety of other services that require higher speeds of Internet.

Q. How will it affect phone service?
A. You will receive the same great telephone service that you have come to expect from us regardless of how it is delivered to you. As with any change, there are a few differences in how things function. One of the changes is that “gong” type outdoor ringers will no longer work. Only telephones and outside ringers that are electronic bell type will work with the new system. Also, do in part to 911 rules, telephone services that ring at multiple locations will no longer be available. This is to allow emergency personnel to know where to go when someone dials 911.

Q. What about video service
A. FTTH offers a wealth of opportunities for television services mostly because of the increase in bandwidth that is available. The new FTTH technology will allow rural customers to get video services from our company. This will include our vast list of digital channels, multi channel movieplexes like HBO & Cinemax, as well as pay-per-view, digital music, and local advertising.

Q. Any other concerns?
A. Because fiber-to-the-home is more expensive to operate and repair, it is even more essential that you call Iowa OneCall at 811 or 800-292-8989 at least 48 hours prior to digging anywhere on your property. Not only will it keep you safe and help you avoid the inconvenience of an outage, but it may save you from having to pay for costly repairs to the fiber optic cable. Call OneCall…it’s the law.