FOA Newsletter


July 2025

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News    Technical    Worth Reading    Q&A    Training/FiberU    Resoures    Safety About

INDEX

Newsletter Sections Click on any link to jump to that section

Features
FOA Hits 30
FOA Microcredentials
FOA Badge in Fiber Optics In Spanish
Seen On The Street - Photos Of Fibers
Resources For STEM Teachers
What's New And Popular On FOA Website

News
Installation In Environmental Extremes
FOA Courses in Baja California and India
"Copper" Thieves Cut Spectrum Fiber
POF Conference
Data Centers - Power
US Broadband Reports
Minnesota Underground Installer Certification

Technical
Who Inventd The OTDR
Tech Contributions:
-Ensuring Reliability
-Horizontal Directional Drilling
-Splicing OPGW
What Technical Advisors Are Telling US
Updated OTDR Trainer

Worth Reading Lots of interesting articles to read, watch or listen to.

Q&A    Interesting questions from our readers

Workforce Training/FiberU
Types Of Work Done By Fiber Techs
FOA-Approved School News
Fiber U MiniCourses

Resources
New FOA Technical Resources

Safety

About the FOA

FOA Certified Techs:

Time To Renew Your FOA Certifications?

You can renew online with credit cards or PayPal

Jobs

See FOA Jobs Web Page and FOA on
The FOA Jobs

Using your FOA Training/Certification to Find the Right Job in Fiber Optics

Where Are The Jobs In Fiber Optics?

Join The FOA eMail Newsletter List

Want to be notified when the FOA Newsletter is updated? Sign up for the FOA eMail Newsletter.

Trademarks: The FOA logo and name, CFOT® (Certified Fiber Optic Technician) and Fiber U® (the FOA online learning site) are registered trademarks of the FOA.

Want to know more about fiber optics? Looking for specific information? Here's the largest technical reference on the web: The FOA Online Fiber Optic Reference Guide.

Free online self-study programs on many fiber optics and cabling topics are available at Fiber U, FOA's online web-based training website.

FOA Reference Books

Available Printed or eBooks

The fiber book is available in Spanish and French



Click on any of the books to learn more.

Fiber Optic Safety Poster to download and print

FOA Videos on

FOA is a member of:

The FOA Newsletter is edited by Jim Hayes - send your stories, leads, ideas, comments to <jim @ foa.org>

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The Archives: Past Issues.

Use these links to read past issues or use FOA's Custom Search to look for specific topics on our website.
1/25, 2/25, 3/25, 4/25, 5/25, 6/25, 7/25,

1/24, 2/24, 3/24, 4/24.5/24, 6/24, 7/24, 8/24, 9/24, 10/24, 11/24, 12/24

1/23, 2/23, 3/23, 4/23, 5/23, 6/23, 7/23, 8/23, 9/23, 10/23, 11/23, 12/23
1/22, 2/22, 3/22, 4/22, 5/22, 6/22, 7/22, 8/22, 9/22, 10/22, 11/22, 12/22

1/21, 2/21. 3/21, 4/21, 5/21, 6/21, 7/21, 8/21, 9/21, 10/21, 11-12/21,

1/20, 2/20, 3/20. 4/20, 5/20, 6/20, 7/20, 8/20, 9/20, 10/20, 11/20, 12/20,

1/19, 2/19, 3/19, 4/19, 5/19, 6/19, 7/19, 8/19, 9/19, 10/19, 11/19, 12/19

1/18, 2/18, 3/18, 4/18, 5/18, 6/18, 7/18, 8/18, 9/18, 10/18, 12/18.

1/17, 2/17, 3/17, 4/17, 5/17, 6/17, 7/17, 8/17, 9/17, 10/17, 11/17, 12/17

1/16, 2/16, 3/16, 4/16, 5/16, 6/16, 7-8/16, 9/16, 10/16, 11/16, 12/16

1/15, 2/15, 3/15, 4/15, 5/15, 6/15, 7/15, 8/15, 9/15 , 10/15, 11/15 , 12/15

1/14, 2/14, 3/14, 4/14, 5/14, 6/14, 7/14, 8/14, 9/14, 10/14, 11/14, 12/14
1/13, 2/13, 3/13, 4/13, 5/13, 6/13, 7/13, 8/13, 9/13, 10/13, 11/13, 12/13
1/12 , 2/12, 3/12, 4/12, 6/12, 7/12, 8/12, 9/12, 10/12, 11/12, 12/12
1/11 , 2/11, 3/11, 4/11, 6/11, 7/11, 8/11, 9/11, 10/11, 11/11, 12/11,
1/10 , 2/10, 3/10, 4/10, 05/10, 07/10, 08/10, 09/10, 10/10, 11/10
1/09 , 2/09, 3/09, 04/09, 05/09, 07/09, 08/09, 09/09, 10/09, 11/09, 12/09
1/08 , 2/08, 3/08, 4/08, 5/08, 6/08, 7/08, 8/08, 09/08, 10/08, 11/08, 12/08
12/07 , 11/07, 10/07, 09/07, 08/07, 07/07, 06/07, 05/07, 04/07, 03/07, 2/07, 1/07
12/06 , 11/06, 10/06, 09/06, 8/06, 7/06, 6/06, 5/06, 4/06, 3/06, 2/06, 1/06,
12/05 ,11/05, 10/05, 09/05, 08/05, 07/05, 6/05, 5/05, 4/05, 2/05, 01/05,
12/04 , 10/04, 9/04, 8/04, 7/04, 6/04, 5/04, 4/04, 3/04, 1/04,
12/03 , 11/03 10/03 9/03, 8/03, 7/03, 6/03, 3/03, 10/02 , 8/02, 5/02

Current Issue of FOA Newsletter

Time To Renew Your FOA Certifications?
To keep your FOA certifications active, you need to renew them when they expire every 3 years. Now we have a new more convenient way to renew - an online store at Paypal - where you can quickly and conveniently use your PayPal account or your credit card to renew your certifications.

Renew online with a credit card or PayPal

Join FOA On Social Media

FOA has 3 LinkedIn Groups
FOA - official page on LinkedIn - covers FOA, technology and jobs in the fiber optic marketplace
FOA Fiber Optic Training - open to all, covers fiber optic technology and training topics
Grupo de La Asociación de Fibra Óptica FOA (Español)

Monthly "1 Minute Survey"

Each month we plan to do a quick survey of our FOA Newsletter readers. We promise it will only take a minute and your answers are anonymous and private! Next month we'll tell you the results of the survey. We think you will find it interesting.

This month's 2 questions are about OSP installation. Go here to take this month's survey.

Results from the June survey:

Go here to take this month's survey.

FOA Hits 30 - 3 Decades Serving The Fiber Optic World

This month, FOA has reached its 30th anniversary. When we reached the 25th anniversary, we devoted the July 2020 Newsletter to the creation of the FOA and its evolution to what it is today, so if you are not familiar with the FOA's history, that issue will bring you up to date. Now we will focus on the last 5 years, an very eventful period.

What We've Learned And How We've Evolved In The Last 5 Years
When that 25th Anniversary issue of the FOA Newsletter was published, we were in the beginning of the pandemic, trying new ways to provide technician training in a pandemic environment. We were expanding online offerings and working with our schools to develop procedures that allowed in-person training safely during the pandemic.

Like many people and organizations, FOA came out of the pandemic with many changes. We also learned a lot. We worked to improve our online learning site, Fiber U, adding new courses and trying several experiments in "virtual hands-on" courses to teach skills. What FOA and its network of schools learned was that there is no substitute to having students attend a real lab and work with real equipment, you cannot learn the KSAs completely online. (KSAs = Knowledge, Skills and Abilities required of a fiber tech.)

The schools became very creative in creating classroom and lab environments that kept students safe while attending class. Instructors began using video to show their demonstrations and some even began using Internet-connected test equipment for teaching. Testing moved online, allowing students and instructors to avoid handling papers, avoiding worries about spreading disease. Many of those techniques have evolved into standard practice in our schools' training classes.

FOA has used the last 5 years to upgrade and update many of our processes, moving certification credentials online where CFOTs can have their own credential web page that can be shared and posted on social media. Certification testing has moved almost totally online, providing immediate feedback to the test taker, their instructor and FOA records. FOA began as a virtual operation; now we are almost entirely electronic.

Broadband - Trying To Get Everything And Everybody Online
The pandemic led to widespread quarantines. When schools closed, most classes went online. From this move society eventually learned that online education has its limits and, yet again, government programs to help people get online turned out badly. BEAD, like previous programs from FCC, RUS, USDA, etc., was based on the assumption that money would cure the problem, while as always, it simply created more of them. By the time BEAD was written by hordes of lobbyists, it became a program of extreme complexity that was not going to connect anyone for many, many years, if ever, and at inflated costs. And in the meantime, another program that helped people afford broadband after they were connected, ACP (Affordable Connectivity Program), was allowed to expire. (We'll cover the BEAD program in a future Newsletter - not now while its future is still in limbo.)

One of the consequences of BEAD was that states had to set up their own broadband agencies to administer BEAD awards. This layer of decision makers was created with many newcomers to telecom, broadband and fiber optics. The focus on these agencies created a lot of opportunities for discussions and lobbying. The widespread discussions about fiber broadband without a good understanding of what it actually was led us to create a new book devoted to fiber broadband, FOA provided boxes of these books on request, trying to educate these newcomers about the technology they were being expected to manage.

FOA learned something in this process.

Education Before Training, But You Need Both
The last 5 years have pointed out that before you need trained and certified techs to build fiber optic networks, you need educated government officials and project planners/managers to create projects. FOA is best known for its work in developing the workforce of fiber optic technicians based on the KSAs, our goal established 30 years ago when we started. But FOA has also been creating education programs for helping everyone from K-12 educators to government officials understand fiber optic communications. We understand that the success of a project depends on everyone understanding the technology to be able to evaluate the need and create programs that will be successful.

With the FOA Guide To Fiber Broadband, the new book devoted to fiber broadband, we created a reference book on the history of modern communications, designed to educate newcomers to the structure of communications that is now called broadband. We also expanded our online material in The FOA Guide and courses on Fiber U to include project management, helping newcomers to fiber optics understand the unique aspects of fiber optic projects. In those references we try to help people understand how you do not "flip a switch" or "write a check" and have instant broadband.

Based on what we have learned, FOA is currently working with our worldwide network of advisors on updating our Fiber Optic Network Design certification (CFOS/D), textbook and curriculum to include project management. More about this soon.

Training Continues To Grow
During the first year of the pandemic, training decreased, but those needing it were still getting trained by the FOA schools who had adopted new training methods. But it took little time for training demand to return and in fact greatly increase, especially with the popularity of fiber broadband. FOA passed a milestone last Fall, surpassing 100,000 certified fiber optic techs. The focus on broadband also brought a number of new schools into the FOA network, including more technical and community colleges offering certifications as part of degree programs.

FOA has made numerous updates to its training programs, reference materials, websites, online learning courses and videos. FOA continues to update the textbooks, including a second edition of our basic fiber book with a comprehensive update and several more translations. FOA is always updating our programs to meet the needs of the fiber optic industry and workforce.

FOA is looking forward to many more years of helping develop the fiber optic workforce!

FOA Microcredentials At Fiber U And Colleges

A recent email from WorkCred, the credential organization associated with ANSI, the American National Standards Institute, enthusiastically endorsed microcredentials. This is what they said:

Microcredentials are taking the world by storm with their fast-paced development and rapid scalability. According to Coursera, nearly 9 out of 10 students seek microcredentials as a key to job success, and relatedly, 96 percent of employers say microcredentials strengthens a candidate’s job application

What's a microcredential? HigherEdJobs defined them this way, " Although what a microcredential entails may differ from institutional certifications, they are understood to be concise, focused qualifications that demonstrate proficiency or competency in a specific skill or subject area. One of the primary advantages of this type of credential is flexibility: students can tailor learning experiences to suit their needs and schedules, which is appealing to working professionals who may not have the time to commit to a full-time degree or evening program. Microcredentials also provide a pathway for job seekers to acquire specific skills that are in high demand in today's job market."

Microcredentials are basically a new "buzzword" for the FOA Fiber U Certificates of Completion offered for those taking the online self-study programs at Fiber U as well as the FOA Certifications used in many college programs for telecommunications, IT, and other high tech fields.

If you are interested in microcredentials, head to Fiber U where you will find more than two dozen courses offering them. If you have a CFOT or CPCT already, Fiber U will let you get a credential for applicaitons like FTTH, Optical LANs, Fiber for Wireless, as well as more technical courses like OTDRs or Fiber Characterization.

Get your Fiber U Certificates of Completion to show you have completed the course and passed the test showing your comprehension of the subject.

More information on FOA Credentials.

FOA Badge In Fiber Optics - Now available in Spanish - Ahora también disponible en español
Obtención de la Insignia FOA en Fibra Óptica

Se ha consultado repetidamente a la FOA sobre las credenciales para otros profesionales en fibra óptica. Además de los técnicos que diseñan, construyen y operan las redes de fibra óptica que el mundo utiliza para las comunicaciones, existen muchos otros profesionales esenciales para el éxito de las industrias de la fibra óptica y el cableado. Estos profesionales fabrican, venden y distribuyen componentes de fibra óptica o planifican y gestionan proyectos que incluyen fibra óptica. Para todos los que trabajan en el sector de la fibra óptica, la FOA ahora ofrece la Insignia FOA en Fibra Óptica.

Los candidatos deben tener experiencia trabajando en fibra óptica. Aprobar el examen en línea para obtener la Insignia FOA en Fibra Óptica. Para prepararse, se recomienda realizar el curso autodidáctico gratuito de Fiber U sobre Fibra Óptica Básica en español. Al finalizar el programa, realice el examen en línea para obtener la Insignia.

El costo del curso autodidáctico, la solicitud y el examen para obtener la Insignia FOA en Fibra Óptica es de $95, que se pueden pagar con tarjeta de crédito o PayPal al realizar el examen. La insignia tiene una validez de 3 años y debe renovarse.

¿Listo para obtener tu Insignia? Asiste al curso autodidáctico de Fiber U sobre Fibra Óptica Básica para estudiar y, cuando estés preparado, haz clic aquí para realizar el examen de la Insignia FOA en Fibra Óptica.

Seen On The Street - This Month's Photos

Is this a record for loops left hanging from a pole? And what a pole! The print on the cable jacket identifies it as a 432 fiber cable from CommScope. Interestingly, only half appears to be figure-8ed. Whoever left it here was concerned enough about the weight they supported it top and bottom.

This pole looks like it's ready to be replaced, something that has already been done in many of these neighborhoods.

It was not possible to count all the cables running up this pole. Best guess was a dozen. It tells a history of service providers in the area: GTE, Verizon, Frontier, Adelphia, Time Warner, Spectrum.

Spotted on Montana Ave. at the alley between 25th and 26th Street in Santa Monica, CA, near FOA HQ. Check it out if you are in the neighborhood.

Classroom Resources For STEM Teachers In K-12 And Technical Schools
Here is the POF kit sent to teachers for demonstration.

Teachers in all grades can introduce their students to fiber optic technology with some simple demonstrations. FOA has created a page for STEM or STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and math) teachers with materials appropriate to their classes. Fiber Optic Resources For STEM Teachers.

FOA also has a YouTube Video on "Careers in Fiber Optics" and a "Careers In Fiber Optics" Website.

What Is An FOA Credential?
As FOA celebrates our 100,000th CFOT® certified technician, introduces the "FOA Badge In Fiber Optics" for others working in the field and adds new courses at Fiber U which offer a "Certificate of Completion," it's a good time to explain the differences between them. FOA has created a page to explain the differences in certifications, certificates and badges.

All FOA Certification Credentials Are Now Online
All FOA Certified Fiber Optic Technicians now have their certification credentials online.
if your FOA certification has not expired you should have been notified you have an online credential. If you did not get notification it may be because FOA did not have a valid email for you. Contact FOA to inquire about your certification credential.

And now, introducing a new FOA credential: The "FOA Badge In Fiber Optics"
An industry-wide credential for professionals working in fiber optics

FOA is best known as the certifying body for the nearly 100,000 FOA-certified fiber optic technicians who build worldwide networks. FOA has been asked many times about credentials for other professionals in fiber optics.

Besides the technicians that design, build and operate the fiber optic networks the world uses for communications, there are many other professionals that are essential for the success of the fiber optic and cabling industries. These professionals manufacture, sell and distribute fiber optic components or plan and manage the projects that include fiber optics.

For everyone working in the fiber optic field. FOA now offers the new FOA Badge in Fiber Optics.

Go here for more information on the FOA Badge in Fiber Optics or watch the YouTube video.

New Fiber U Course: Fiber Optic Safety Covers Construction And Installation

This new Fiber U course focuses on safety in fiber optic installation. There are two lessons in this course, fiber optic construction and fiber optic installation. The dividing line between the two courses is the installation of the fiber optic cables. Construction leads up to and/or is completed when the cables are installed. Installation begins when the fiber tech installs the cable, then completes the splicing, termination testing and documentation. The overlap between the two is the installation of the cables where both construction personnel and fiber optic techs are involved.

Here is the new Fiber U "Fiber Optic Safety" self-study program. Take the course and get your certificate of completion.

Enhance your safety with the FOA Safety Vest.

We bought one ourselves - it's well made and distinctive.

New Edition of FOA's Basic Fiber Optics Textbook

It has been 5 years since we have updated the FOA Reference Guide To Fiber Optics, so it is certainly time for an update. The latest version is different enough we call it a new edition. Many of the updates are for new technologies which are reshaping the fiber optic industry like coherent transmission, BI fibers, etc. We've also added a section on the fiber optic workforce which has much relevance because this book is used to train those entering the workforce. We've also worked on making the book more readable, adding formatting that eases reading and a new comprehensive index.

Inflation was an issue, but the price only goes up $2 to $29.95 for the paperback and $12.95 for the Kindle version.

The new edition of the FOA Reference Guide To Fiber Optics is available from Amazon and booksellers worldwide.

New/Updated Web Pages
Index Of Articles On Fiber Broadband Networks From The Fiber Optic Association - dozens of articles on fiber broadband over the last 4 years.

FOA Credentials: the differences in certifications, certificates and badges.

Satellite Communications

OSP Aerial Construction Workmanship

Splices And Connections Of Regular to BI Singlemode FIbers.

Fiber Optic Safety - Installation and Construction.

Fiber Optic Network Troubleshooting.

Books

FOA Reference Guide To Fiber Optics, Second Edition, second edition of the basic fiber textbook.

The Fiber Optic Association Guide To Fiber Broadband Is A Hit With Broadband Planners Paperback ($12.95) and Kindle ($9.95) versions available from Amazon or most booksellers. Kindle version is in color!

New In The FOA Guide - Introduction To Broadband and Guidelines For Fiber Optic Project Planners

FOA Guide To The Fiber Optic Workforce - what we've learned in developing the fiber optic workforce over more than a quarter century and almost 100,000 certified techs.

Cross Reference Guide to Textbooks, Online Guide and Fiber U    FOA Videos Guide.

FOA has a web page with resources on fiber broadband and the IIJA/BEAD funding programs.

FOA Newsletter Sections

News    Technical    Worth Reading    Q&A    Training/FiberU    Resoures    Safety About

News

Lots more news in Worth Reading below

Installation In Environmental Extremes - Iraq

In the extreme heat of Iraq, where sandstorms and daytime temperatures above 50°C (122°F) are part of everyday life, fiber installation company SANA has accomplished something truly extraordinary. In 2024 alone, SANA has installed over 7,600 kilometers of optical fiber using 21 Jetting V2 machines.

From May to September, temperatures range between 35°C (95°F) and 45°C (113°F), and to protect our staff, we work from 4 PM to 10 AM, avoiding the hottest hours,” explains Mohammed Haider, Fiber Operations Supervisor at Telecraft, SANA Iraq.. “Between October and April, the temperature ranges from 0°C (32°F) to 35°C (95°F), so we run 24/7 operations in three shifts.”

Every aspect of the operation, from working hours to maintenance intervals, is carefully adapted to handle the heat, dust, and extreme temperature swings — not just daily, but over the course of the year.

Read more at fiberconnectmena.org.

FOA Courses Around The World

FOA has training organizations offering courses in more than 40 countries around the world. Some of them send us photos of their training and we are proud to share them!

FOA Training In Baja California

Steve Harris of Harris DigiTech Academy (at right in upper left photo) at CSMX in Mexico

Harris DigiTech Academy (FOA school #441) brought its FOA‑approved, hands‑on fiber‑optic training to the CSMX Expo in La Paz, Baja California, Mexico. THe course was taught in Spanish, of course, using the FOA curriculum which is available in Spanish.

Broadband operator attendees from across Mexico & Latin America dove into real-world fiber installation, testing, and troubleshooting exercises led by Steve harris and other seasoned industry instructors—culminating in a deep‑dive, practical course aligned to job competencies.   UCL Swift, Tempo Communications and Jonard Tools were on hand showcasing the latest fiber tools and test equipment!! Then, from June 26–27, the academy continued showcasing their expertise on the expo floor, connecting with attendees and demonstrating cutting‑edge fiber solutions.

FOA Training In Hyderabad, India

Shaik Kareem, CEO of FTTH and Smart Technologies FOA School #769 in Hyderabad, India, sent us photos from one of their recent classes.

Spectrum says would-be copper thieves caused internet outage affecting L.A., Ventura counties

LA Times

An attempted — and unsuccessful — copper theft in Van Nuys caused a widespread internet outage Sunday affecting swaths of Los Angeles and Ventura counties, a Spectrum spokesman confirmed to The Times.

“This morning, our lines were cut due to vandalism in Van Nuys that also affected our services in other parts of Los Angeles and Ventura,” spokesperson Dennis Johnson said Sunday. In a Monday update, he added that service was gradually restored — area by area — over the course of Sunday, with repairs wrapping up Monday morning.

Johnson attributed the incident to copper wire thieves — who were looking for copper in a place where there was none.

Read more in the LA TImes.

Updating A Century-Old Subway Signal System (From June Newsletter)

Read the complete article about the NYTransit modernization program in the NY Times.

The 33rd International Conference on Plastic Optical Fibers (POF 2025) will be held from October 29–31 at Boston University Photonics Center in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. The conference is co-organized by the International Cooperative of Plastic Optical Fibers (ICPOF) and Information Gatekeepers. It is the only technical conference that addresses the latest advances in POF technology, applications and industry progress each year.

In addition to the technical program, an accompanying exhibit will allow companies to showcase their latest POF products and technologies. We also invite you to show off your company's technologies and products at the exhibition booths.

Call For Papers - Deadline July 25, Submit Your Abstract TODAY!
Sponsorship and Exhibitor Registrations OPEN NOW!
More information is available at https://pof2025.org

Data Centers

Power Bills Are Squeezing Georgians
NYTimes

The obscure but powerful Georgia Public Service Commission, which regulates utilities. has approved six rate increases over the last two years. Factoring in natural gas, water and internet costs, Georgia residents now pay among the highest utility bills in the country, trailing only Alaska, Hawaii, Connecticut and West Virginia.

Energy costs rose sharply around the country in 2022, driven by a spike in natural gas prices when Russia invaded Ukraine. In Georgia, additional factors in the state’s high utility bills include $17 billion in cost overruns from Georgia Power’s Plant Vogtle nuclear generators and new infrastructure to support an anticipated surge in electricity demand from data centers.

In South Carolina and Florida, some Republican legislators have become more vocal in challenging energy companies that are hungry to build new natural gas power plants and pipelines to accommodate more data centers.

Read more in NYTimes.

America’s grid is stretched thin.

In the wintertime last year, about two-thirds of the country faced elevated risks of blackouts, according to the North American Electric Reliability Corporation. We can’t move electricity from areas with excess capacity to where it’s needed because we haven’t built enough transmission lines. And in a world increasingly powered by machine intelligence, if your power goes out, your economy goes offline.

The demand for electricity is rising fast. Training a single large-scale A.I. model now requires as much electricity as a large, urban American neighborhood uses in a year. Data centers, which power everything from those language models to advanced simulations, are projected to consume about 10 percent of the U.S. electricity supply by 2030 — up from around 2 percent today. A new reportfrom the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (https://www.nerc.com/pa/RAPA/PA/Pages/default.aspx) finds that these facilities are an emerging threat to grid stability because they pull huge amounts of power at unpredictable times.

The grid wasn’t built for this. Unless we expand energy generation and build out transmission aggressively, the lights will start to flicker on our future prosperity.

Read more- Opinion in the NYTimes.

Talen Energy and Amazon sign nuclear power deal to fuel data centers

U.S. utility Talen Energy announced an expanded nuclear energy partnership with Amazon.com supply up to 1,920 megawatts of electricity from its Susquehanna plant in Pennsylvania to Amazon Web Services (AWS) data centers. The long-term deal, lasting until 2042, ensures Talen a steady, long-term revenue stream while supporting Amazon's growing demand for carbon-free energy to power its AI and cloud operations.

Both companies will also explore building new Small Modular Reactors within Talen's Pennsylvania footprint and pursue expanding the nuclear plant's energy output.

Read more from Reuters.

Back To The (Fusion) Future

The forecasts for electricity demand around the world in the coming decades dwarf what experts say energy companies can deliver using current technologies. Much of the demand is driven by the intense energy needs of the artificial intelligence industry, motivating some of Silicon Valley’s most powerful companies to embed themselves in the fusion moonshot, engaging their AI machinery in the effort to get fusion power out of the lab and onto the power grid.

More than $8 billion in mostly private money has been invested in fusion start-ups, most of it in the past four years. There are at least 43 private-industry ventures or partnerships in the United States and allied countries that are racing to commercialize fusion power. It’s a prize that has eluded scientists for so long, many still believe it can’t be done, at least not anytime soon.

Victor Gilinksy, a former member of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, has also warned that companies are vastly downplaying the huge hurdles they have yet to overcome. Michel Claessens, former communications director for ITER, an international effort to advance fusion science, says the industry is misleading the public with its promises that fusion energy is within sight.

The costs are so high and engineering challenges so extreme that one of the most prominent U.S. fusion experts, Harvard physicist and former White House science adviser John Holdren, said in an interview that “it is extremely unlikely we will see fusion power on the grid much before 2050.”

Read more in the Washington Post.

Progress Shouldn’t Poison Black Communities
Washington Post

In South Memphis, Tennessee, a neighborhood called Boxtown is paying the price for the AI revolution with every breath. This historically Black community, founded by formerly enslaved people who built homes from discarded railroad boxcars, now faces a new threat: massive gas-powered generators installed by xAI — Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company — that are poisoning their air.

These generators power the “Colossus” supercomputer that trains Grok, Musk's competitor to ChatGPT. Environmental groups using thermal imaging discovered 33 gas turbines operating on site, emitting an estimated 1,200 to 2,000 tons of nitrogen oxides annually — compounds that cause respiratory problems and contribute to smog formation. This makes xAI one of the county's most significant pollution sources virtually overnight, in a neighborhood where cancer rates are already four times the national average due to industrial contamination.

Read more at Tech Policy Press

US Broadband Reports

RDOF Defaults Keep Coming

Many stakeholders were shocked when it came to light two years or so ago that over a third of $9.2 billion in winning bids in the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) broadband program were rejected after the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) reviewed winning bidders’ long-form applications. And the tally of RDOF defaults isn’t complete yet.

Telecompetitor got an exclusive first look at an analysis to be released today from Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, which found that bids associated with nearly $112.8 million in additional RDOF funding are in default. The additional defaults represent nearly 1.9 million locations that had been expected to receive service. And more defaults could be on the way.

Read more in Telecompetitor.

More Than 40 Lawmakers Urge Lutnick to Reverse New BEAD Guidance

More than 40 lawmakers urged Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick Wednesday to reverse the agency’s new rules for its $42.45 billion broadband expansion program. The lawmakers took issue with a provision of the new Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program rules, updated on June 6, that would allow applicants bidding to serve a given area to exclude certain homes and businesses that would be excessively high-cost or otherwise make the project uneconomical.

“Such an allowance would defy bipartisan congressional intent, which was predicated on the understanding that public investment was needed to achieve universal service precisely because building the infrastructure to cover many rural areas was too costly to be profitable,” they wrote.

Read more at Broadband Breakfast.

At least half of BEAD locations no longer eligible for funding, report claims

Researchers at New York Law School found that more than half of locations originally eligible to receive federal broadband funding are no longer eligible. The number of locations across the country previously identified as eligible to receive funds through the federal Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program has declined by more than half, according to a report released Wednesday by the Advanced Communications Law & Policy Institute at New York Law School.

The ACLP’s analysis shows the “surprisingly large” decrease in the total number of BEAD-eligible locations since allocations were set in 2023, with the number of locations that are underserved with quality internet service or lack access all together decreasing by an average of 57% across the 46 states evaluated.

One way to interpret this data is the BEAD process is taking so much time that people are unwilling to wait and are moving ahead with their own local solutions.

Read the entire article in StateScoop.com.

Minnesota To Require Underground Telecom Installer Certification

Minnesota state law will soon require telecom installers working on underground installations to have a Safety-Qualified Underground Telecommunications Installer Certification (Minnesota Statutes 326B.198). This certification requirement applies to the installation of underground telecommunications infrastructure that is located within 10 feet of existing underground utilities or that crosses existing underground utilities. This work must be performed by safety-qualified underground telecommunications installers pursuant to the effective dates outlined in statute.

Beginning July 1, 2025, the installation of underground telecommunications infrastructure subject to Minn. Stat. 326B.198, within the seven-county metropolitan area, must be performed by safety-qualified underground telecommunications installers. The program applies to installations in the entire state by January 1, 2026.

This program requires individuals seeking to become certified as a safety-qualified underground telecommunications installer to complete 40 hours of training (and pass an exam), which requires both classroom and hands-on instruction. The legislation also requires that certified installers obtain four hours of refresher training to be completed within three years of completing the initial 40-hour course, and every three years thereafter, to maintain certification.

The training will be provided by training providers who will submit their course materials to DLI for review and approval.

Read more from the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry.

Quote Of The ~~Month~~/Year (maybe Century!) (this is worth repeating)

Speaking at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia + Technology Conference, AT&T’s CEO John Stankey said, “There’s a fallacy to say there’s fixed networks and wireless networks. There are only fiber networks with different access technologies on the end of them. That’s where this is all going.”

Technical

Fiber optic technology, standards, equipment, installation, etc.

The FOA Update Page covers the new technology and applications we covered in this newsletter recently. Now you can review all that new tech at once.

Cross Reference To FOA Technical Reference Materials

The FOA has almost 1,000 pages of technical information on the FOA Guide, 100+ videos and two dozen online courses at Fiber U, all this can make it difficult to find the right information.

Cross Reference To FOA Tech Materials
To help this, we have created a cross reference guide to the textbooks, Online Guide and Fiber U courses, all the FOA technical information. Besides the textbooks, online Guide and Fiber U, each section of the Guide also includes links to the 100+ FOA videos available.
Cross Reference Guide to Textbooks, Online Guide and Fiber U
FOA Videos
We have also rearranged the 100+ FOA videos in similar categories on the Contents Page of the Online Guide, making the videos, especially the lectures, much it much easier to find a video on a particular topic.
FOA Videos Guide.

Want to know more about fiber optics? Study for FOA certifications? Free Self-Study Programs are on Fiber U®

Tech Trivia: Who Invented The OTDR?
It was Michael Barnoski at Hughes Research Laboratories in Mailbu, CA. collaborating with Corning in 1976.

Read more about him.

Tech Articles From FOA's Worldwide Network Of Advisors
FOA has a worldwide network of technical advisors who help us develop our knowledge base. This month we have contributions fro several regular contributors, Eric Pearson, a founder of FOA, and Vladimir Grozdanovic in Serbia. We provide an abstract here and a link to read the entire article which will be added to the FOA Online Guide.

Ensuring Reliability By Proper Fiber Optic Installation

The goals of a fiber optic installation should not be solely based on achieving the lowest initial cost. Should lowest cost result in reduced reliability, lowest initial cost may result in significantly increased lifecycle cost.

Eric Pearson does it all, educator, writer, consultant, with a resume' going back to the beginning of fiber optics. Here's advice from Eric on the way to ensure the long term reliability of a fiber optic cable plant by proper installation.

Horizontal Directional Drilling (HDD)

Vladimir Grozdanovic discusses why HDD is used and details procedures for using it safely.

Splicing Optical Power Ground Wire OPGW

Vladimir Grozdanovic reviews how OPGW is used by electrical utiities to provide communications in the same cables used for electrical power transmission and distribution. With photos and descriptions from installer Eugene Reyes, he shows the procedures for splicing this special type of fiber optic cable.

What FOA's Instructors And Technical Advisors Are Telling Us

In the October 2024 FOA Newsletter we ran a long illustrated feature article offering guidelines for aerial cable plant installation, illustrated by some "excellent" bad examples. That article elicited quite a few comments, especially from the instructors at some of our FOA schools around the world, and led to some discussions with others in our field, including manufacturers. Several topics seem to warrant further discussion, so we thought it would be interesting to share some of our notes and encourage more inputs before we cover the topics in detail in future issues of the newsletter.

Here are some of the topics of the comments published in the November 2024 Newsletter. Some, we promise, are controversial! Feel free to comment.

Aerial Cable Plant Workmanship

Read the recently updated FOA Guide sections Aerial Cable Installation and Aerial Cable Plant Workmanship. and see FOA Guidelines for Aerial Cable Installation.

Is It Just The OTDR Or Is Singlemode Loss Really Directional?
Read the explanation of OTDR directional differences in the FOA Guide page on OTDRs.

A Quiet But Important Change In The Fiber Optic Cable You Buy
With so many cable designs today, like microcables or high fiber count cables, requiring bend-insensitive fibers, would it make sense to make all or most singlemode fibers as bend insensitive fiber?

Two manufacturers (Corning and OFS) told FOA the industry is moving towards a G.657.A specification in fiber, because the industry is moving towards smaller denser cables in the network & the bend resilience is a requirement for the cable design. So singlemode fiber is moving to being BI fiber, exactly what happened with 50/125 laser optimized fibers a decade ago. With most new fiber, compatibility is not an issue. But it is recommended to check with the cable manufacturer if you are not sure what fiber is being used in the cable you are purchasing.

Read the entire FOA report on compatibility of G.652 and G.657 singlemode fiber that includes this summary.

Sponsored Content

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We have partnerships with industry leading manufacturers to support your installation, splicing and testing needs. Our goal is to guide, support and recognized our client’s requirements.

Learn more about OptConn

Updated FOA OTDR Trainer

FOA has rewritten the FOA OTDR Trainer around Fiberizer. The Fiberizer PC software was the version we used for creating the Trainer, but the basic techniques apply to all versions of Fiberizer. FOA provides a folder of sample traces in 3 categories - Parameter Traces, Sample Traces and PON Traces - around which we build the trainer. If you set up Fiberizer, you can complete the FOA OTDR Trainer lessons and then use the same software to analyze other traces you may have, even from other brands of OTDRs, as long as they are .sor files.

The FOA OTDR Trainer is ready to help you learn about OTDRs. Go to the OTDR Trainer page,
tech/ref/testing/OTDR/OTDRsimulator.html, choose your version of Fiberizer, download the FOA Traces and you are ready to go.

FOA wishes to thank VeEX for permission to use their Fiberizer® software in our OTDR trainer. And our compliments to them for making the ap available on multiple platforms that ensure anybody can use it.

How Good Are Your OTDR Launch/Receive Cables?
FOA received an inquiry about some OTDR traces that showed failures. Quite a few fibers failed at the final connection to the receive cable, indicating that there could be a problem with the connection - dirt of a bad connector on the receive cable. Have you checked the connectors on your OTDR - or OLTS - reference cables recently? You should inspect and clean them regularly - every few connections - to ensure they are good. If they are bad, they will cause false failures on the cable under test.

NECA/FOA 301 fiber optic installation standard withdrawn
The NECA/FOA 301 fiber optic installation standard has been withdrawn. It's almost a quarter century old and a decade since the last update. It has been decided the standard needs to be replaced with a more modern document covering current technology and written in a format that allows easier updating.

In the meantime, there is lots of useful information in the standard and you can still download a free copy from FOA.

Download your free copy of ANSI/NECA/FOA-301 here (PDF)

FTTH Technical Papers

FOA contributor Vladimir Grozdanovic has created these technical papers based on his field experiences.

Construction Methods For Microtrenching

Fiber Optic Ducts And Microducts

Fiber Optic Tools

Optical Distribution Frames (ODFs) And Patch Panels

Using Fiber Identifiers

Testing The FTTH PON Network (new)

Troubleshooting PON Installations.

Installation of FTTH Active Equipment in the FOA Guide.

Optical Splitters in the FOA Guide.

Examples of poor installation of FTTH in the aerial outside plant and in the customer premises.

Recycling Fiber Optic Cables? Contact LD4 Recycle

Learning Important Information From A Found Cable Scrap

While walking down the street near the FOA office, we found this cable laying in the gutter. What a find! A short length of Corning Rocket Ribbon 864 fiber cable left over from an installation by a contractor.

We brought the cable back to our office with the intention of opening it up and creating a video about the construction of this modern high fiber count cable, but something got our attention first. The cable had a very long line of printing on it with lots of interesting and useful information. So before we started deconstructing it, we decided to photograph the printed information and interpret it. That turned out to be an important part of the information we learned from the cable. Then, as you will see below, we dissected the cable and learned even more.

Red more about what this cable marking tells you and what the cable looks like when you open it up to prepare for splicing.

Managing Fiber Optic Projects - The Gantt Chart

(With An Excel File To Make Your Own)

The most common way to track projects is the Gantt Chart, a chart of activities that tracks the progress of projects along a timeline. each activity is represented by a bar and the position and length of the bar represents the starting date and duration of the activity. This allows you to see what activities are needed for the project, when the activities start and end so it can be used to track the progress of the project visually. Here is what a Gantt Chart for a fiber project might look like:

You might remember an article in the FOA Newsletter in April 2022 or the FOA Guide page on Project Management about the timing of a fiber optic project where we showed the progression of steps in a project like this:

The Gantt Chart is simply this list converted to a Gantt Chart using a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. You can download a copy of the FOA Gantt Chart spreadsheet (xlsx file - 16kB) and use it to create your own Gantt Chart for any project. All you have to do is to input your own data and change the activity names as necessary. You can also follow the directions from Microsoft to create your own version.

Help On Color Codes (Including Copper Cabling And Fiber Optics)

The FOA has created a print-your-own pocket guide to fiber optic color codes. It has color codes for fibers and buffer tubes, connectors and premises cables inside and on the back, QR codes to take you directly to the FOA Guide and Fiber U. The FOA Guide page on Fiber Optic Color Codes is one of the most read pages on the FOA website and the Fiber Optic Color Codes minicourse on Fiber U very popular also.

Here are the links to download your own FOA Guides to Fiber Optic Color Codes
FOA Guide to Fiber Optic Color Codes (print your own version) PDF
FOA Guide to Fiber Optic Color Codes (electronic version for your smartphone, tablet or PC) PDF

And Color Codes For UTP Cabling
FOA Guide to UTP Cabling Color Codes (print your own version) PDF
FOA Guide to UTP Copper Cabling Color Codes (electronic version) PDF

Warning For Techs Doing OSP Restoration

FOA received an inquiry about whether techs working on restoring OSP links should be concerned about eye safety if the link used fiber amplifiers. To answer this question, we had to do some research on fiber amplifiers. The short answer is YES, you should be concerned. The long answer is more technical and includes details that every OSP tech needs to know.

See "Fiber Amps And Restoration" in the FOA Newsletter Archives..

Try The FOA's Online Loss Budget Calculator

FOA has written many articles about loss budgets, something everyone involved in fiber optics needs to know and needs to know how to calculate. We've created a online Loss Budget Calculator that does the work for you. Just input your cable plant data and it calculates the loss budget. It works on any device, especially smartphones and tablets for field use and even allows printing the results.

Bookmark this page (especially on your smartphone): FOA Loss Budget Calculator Online



Worth Reading

Each month we read hundreds of newsletters and online articles. These are the ones we think you will find "worth reading."

FOA has a web page with resources on fiber broadband networks and the IIJA/BEAD funding programs.

Cross Reference Guide to FOA Textbooks, Online Guide and Fiber U

FOA Timeline of Fiber Optic History and the new FOA video "The History Of Fiber Optics"

AT&T PR photo from the mid 1970s

The FOA's History

Stories From The Past FOA Newsletters

Last Gasp For Multimode Fiber?
Who Lost Lucent? The Decline of America's Telecom Industry.

How Many Fibers? Optimal cable Size.
Women Installers In Alaska. .
Building Rural FTTH - Learning From The History Of Rural Electrification.
Warning For Techs Doing Restoration (Fiber Amplification).

The Future Of Work Is Skills - So Stop Worrying About Degrees - The reality is the future of work is about skills, not just degrees. (FOA Newsletter Feb 2020)

Recent articles from The FOA Newsletter
Fake OTDR Traces Submitted For Testing Documentation January 2023 Tech
Using OTDRs To Test Transoceanic Cables And PONs February 2023
POF - the Other Fiber March 2023
What Do Employers Expect From A Fiber Optic Tech? April 2023
Are Standards Ignoring The OSP? May 2023
FOA Has Proven Results In Fiber Optic Workforce Development June 2023
BEAD Funding For States Announced And Analyzed July 2023
Wisdom From The Street (Analyzing the printing on a fiber optic cable) July 2023
Focus On Disasters August 2023
FOA's Role In Education and Work Done By Fiber Techs September 2023
The Workforce: New US DoL Bureau of Labor Statistics Telecom Tech Category October 2023
How Many Telecom Techs Do We Need and How Big Is The Fiber Optic Market November 2023
Guidelines For Fiber Optic Project Planners December 2023
2023 Year In Review. Kentucky Shows The Value Of Fiber January 2024.
What is Broadband? History of the Cable Modem February 2024
It's Just Economics. Things you need to know. March 2024.

Fiber To The Shore - Undersea cables along the coast April, 2024.
The Future Of The Fiber Tech May 2024.

Worth Reading (And Watching Or Listening):

June

The Entire Internet Is Reverting to Beta, The Atlantic. The AI takeover is changing everything about the web—and not necessarily for the better. The extent of the AI industry’s new ambitions—to rewire not just the web, but also the economy, education, and even the workings of government with a single technology—magnifies any flaw to the same scale.

Calix Launches Calix Market Insights to Equip Broadband Leaders with Actionable Intelligence, Calix

2Africa Makes Successful Cable Landing in Qatar, SSC Cables. This extension brings the total length of the 2Africa cable system to over 45,000 kilometers, making it the longest cable network.

Mecklenburg Co-Op Celebrates 7,500 Fiber Customer Milestone - Community Networks. An 87 year old electrical Co-op builds 2900 miles of fiber. Worth reading to see the problems they encountered with government support programs.

Trump Administration Imposed BEAD Changes Introduce Significant New Delays - Community Networks. Poised to introduce years of potential new delays to the already slow-moving program.

The A.I. Frenzy Is Escalating. Again. NYTimes. Companies like OpenAI, Amazon and Meta have supersized their spending on artificial intelligence, with no signs of slowing down.

10 Mind-Blowing Generative AI Stats Everyone Should Know About - Forbes
By some estimates, 90% of all online content will be AI-generated by the end of 2026. At that point, it all becomes a loop of irrelevance.

Previously:

Index Of Articles Fiber Broadband Networks From The Fiber Optic Association - dozens of articles on fiber broadband over the last 4 years.

2024 Optical Fiber Reference Guide - M2 Optics A comprehensive list of single mode and multimode optical fibers currently available from several of the world’s leading manufacturers. Very useful.

The State Of Fiber Optics In The Utility Industry - Utility Expo

Deep Dives (Takes a while to read but worth it)

Investing In Fiber Optic Networks -Hexatronic - not like venture capital investing, but how financial decisions in network design may have big effects on the total cost of a network.

VIAVI "NITRO" Fiber Sensing Solutions - VIAVI is offering systems to use fibers as sensors for finding cabling problems, structural monitoring and security. Focus is on electrical power transmission, piplelines, and critical infrastructure. IT might apply to your network.

Investing in Middle Mile Can Help Communities Achieve Broadband Equity. US Ignite

Quote of the month, May 2024: “Middle mile is like the middle child that keeps getting ignored. If we continue ignoring it, at one point in time, we will not be able to connect all of these new last mile connections that we are planning on building in the next four years.” Sachin Gupta, Director of Government Business & Economic Development at Centranet.

Obstacles to Fiber Optic Workforce Training and Certification ISE Magazine

Recent Articles

Responsible Fiber Deployment: Strategies for Protection and Damage Prevention - Excavation Safety Alliance - YouTube video, 1hr.

Can Our Industry Develop Fiber Talent? ISE Magazine. Learn how states, schools and training organizations must work together to develop fiber field talent.

Landlines are dying out. But to some, they’re a lifeline. Washington Post Providers want to scale back landline service, but people with poor cell reception still rely on it for emergencies.

Pre-Excavation Safety Checklist (PDF) - Excavation Safety Alliance - essential steps before breaking ground for underground construction.
Fiber vs Wireless - Are You Kidding? ISE Magazine Of course we need both!

Developing a Fiber Workforce Really Does Take A Village - ISE magazine looks at the role of manufacturers' training in developing the fiber workforce.

How Many More Fiber Techs Do We Really Need? - ISE Magazine
Telegeography Submarine Cable Map 2023 - You can also buy copies - Telegeography

CABL® (cabl.com) serves the business needs of the Broadband industry (including traditional cable TV, fiber, telecom and satellite providers) with employment listings, classified ads, discussion forums, and more. A contractor told us it's where they find lots of opportunities for subcontracting.

Do You Believe In Magic? Sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. ISE Magazine.

The Secret to Future Proofing, ISE Magazine

The 45 Year Old Overnight Sensation - ISE Magazine (Read the complete Nov/Dec issue of ISE Magazine here.

ESRI has created an ebook on GIS location technology for telecom. Use the link to download the book.

Conocimiento Esencial: ¿Por qué la fibra óptica? creado por FiberWizards

Recruiting And Training Today's Fiber Optic Workforce - Learn the fundamentals to recruit and train new fiber optics -ISE Magazine.

Google Video On Their Undersea Cables YouTube Slick but interesting video on how undersea cables are designed, built and used.

Construction Without Disruption - ISE Magazine

Fiber Optics Installed By The Lowest Bidder - ISE Magazine

Building Broadband During Component and Worker Shortages - Broadband Communities - Completing broadband builds requires competent fiber optic techs, but training them requires understanding how they learn.

Worth Reading - Magazines, Websites and Newsletters

CABL® (cabl.com) serves the business needs of the Broadband industry (including traditional cable TV, fiber, telecom and satellite providers) with employment listings, classified ads, discussion forums, and more. A contractor told us it's where they find lots of opportunities for subcontracting.

The Institute for Local Self-Reliance weekly newsletter has lots of interesting articles and links.

Next Century Cities Newsletter - News from cities around the US including Detroit and New York plus small

Structured Cabling News - a website and weekly newsletter about cabling

RTI Telecom Magazine from Brazil, in Portuguese. A revista RTI do mês de abril já está disponível online e recomendo a leitura de alguns artigos:

Worth Reading - History & Technical

FOA was founded in 1995 - FOA's History
As part of celebrating 3 decades serving the fiber optic industry as its primary source of technical information and independent certifying body, FOA thought it appropriate to create a short history of the organization and how it has developed to help the fiber optic industry. We also wanted to recognize the contributions many people have made to the organization over the years that made FOA what it is today.

The FOA history is on the FOA website where you can read it or link to it.

1983 Video of AT&T's First Test Of A Submarine Cable System From the AT&T Tech Channel archives (worth exploring!)

Richard Epworth's Optical Fiber History from his work at STL from 1966 with Charles Kao.

50th Anniversary of The Development of Low Loss Fibers A history of the development of low loss fiber, a fascinating story by Jeff Hecht on the OSA (Optical Society of America) website.

The First Transcontinental Telephone Line began operation on July 29th in 1915 - 3400 miles between New York and San Francisco - required over 100,000 telephone poles! Wonders of World Engineering

"Who Lost Lucent?: The Decline of America's Telecom Equipment Industry"
This is a MUST READ for managers in telecom or any industry!

Communications Systems Grounding Rules: Article 800 provides specific requirements by Michael Johnston, NECA Executive Director of Standards and Safety in EC Magazine

How To Build Rural Broadband, Learning From History
In the August 2021 FOA Newsletter, we published a lengthy article on rural broadband and compared it to rural electrification in America in the last century. Much of the comparison was based on an article written in 1940 by a USDA economist, Robert Beall, called "Rural Electrification." If you are interested in or involved in rural broadband, we recommend you read the article "How To Build Rural Broadband, Learning From History" in the August 2021 FOA Newsletter and read the Beall article also.

Recycling Fiber Optic Cable - Contact:
Steve Maginnis
LD4Recycle/ CommuniCom Recycling
(Visit website)
sm@LD4Recycle.com
803.371.5436

Sumitomo's Ribbon Splicing Guide - download from one of the leaders in splicing.

OFS also has an excellent website and blog of tech articles worth browsing.

IEC 60050 - International Electrotechnical Vocabulary - An extensive dictionary for fiber optics in English and French. Highly technical - this is one definition: "mode - one solution of Maxwell's equations, representing an electromagnetic field in a certain space domain and belonging to a family of independent solutions defined by specified boundary conditions"

Restoration: If you are interested in restoration - aren't we all? - you should also read this article in dpPro magazine by FOA President Jim Hayes: Damage Protection Requires Looking Overhead As Well As Underground - dpPRO Magazine - about the problems with aerial cables. His previous article for the magazine was New Techniques for Fiber Optic Installation.

Universal access to broadband is a cornerstone to a strong economy, Achieving universal access will require community partnerships. by Alfreda B. Norman, Sr. VP, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas

FIBER TO THE FARM: The co-ops that electrified Depression-era farms are now building rural internet. Be sure to check out the high-tech equine installation equipment.

Infrastructure Get Some Respect, NY TImes "On Tech" "The magic of the internet requires a lot of very boring stuff behind the scenes. "
DIRT Report On Damage To Utilities Common Ground Alliance (CGA) annual DIRT report provides a summary and analysis of the events submitted into CGA’s Damage Information Reporting Tool (DIRT) for the year 2018. The complete report is available for download here. In addition, there is an interactive dashboard that allows users to filter the data more by factors contributing to damages.

Fiber Trivia From Corning.

VIAVI Books On Fiber Optic Testing (2 volumes) - They're back!

Besides the FOA reference materials, two JDSU/VIAVI textbooks, Reference Guide to Fiber Optic Testing, Volumes 1 and 2, were used as references for some of the FOA courses and are recommended for instructors and students. The books are available from VIAVI as eBooks and the everyone should download them and recommend them to others.Download yours now. Volume 1. Volume 2. Viavi Books

Ciena's Submarine Cable Handbooks (4 to download)

How OFS Makes Fiber
Interesting YouTube video on how fiber is made. Perhaps a little too much "show biz" but fascinating. If you have ever seen fiber manufacture, look at this video. You will be amazed at how big preforms have become!

The True Cost of Telco Damages (what backhoe fade or target practice can cost)

Rural Electric Cooperatives: Pole Attachment Policies and Issues, June 2019.

Q&A

When readers ask us questions, we genrally refer them to FOA resources where they can find the answer to their question and many more. We first send them to the FOA Guide which is the table of contents for the FOA technical resources. There they can find pages indexed by topic and a search engine for the FOA website. It also links them to FOA videos and courses on our free online learning site Fiber U.

The FOA Fiber FAQs Page (FAQs = frequently asked questions) gathers up questions readers have asked us (which first ran in this newsletter) and adds tech topics of general interest.

Good Question!

Tech Questions/Comments From FOA Newsletter Readers

More Q&A in the FOA FAQs Page

Are Splices Too Close Together A Problem?
Q: When installing fiber in an plant. Is there a minimum distance that two splices should be apart? ;
A: The recommendation in the past was to bot have splices close together since slight reflectances at the splices could cause an interference problem with laser systems. The recommendation was to keep splices 30-100m apart. IT was especially noted if you had to splice in a section of cable to repair a cable break. However we have not heard this in recent history, perhaps because fusion splices are so good. We asked a number of FOA's technical advisors for their opinions. Their feedback is the problem of reflectance causing problems at closely spaced splices seems to have disappeared. It’s a matter of better splicing machines and more consistent fibers, and also a matter of lasers being engineered to work better in links.

Copper Tech Wants To Learn Fiber Optics
Q: I am originally from copper installations and faults finding. I would like to get involved in Optic fibre faults and finding, how do I go if there is a possible training it will be highly appreciated,
A: Just learn about fiber, especially fiber testing and troubleshooting. Fiber U has courses you can take for free.

OSP Installation Standards
Q: I'm looking for standards for fiber optic OSP installation.
A: The whole issue of OSP standards has been one FOA been trying to get standards bodies interested in for years with little success, probably because it is an enormous project. Right now there are two documents that address OSP cable plant:

ITU-T    Technical Report, TR-OFCS Optical fibres, cables and systems, (3 July 2015)
As you can see, the ITU document is almost 10 years old and a lot has changed in that time.

The Other is the Telcordia Blue Book - Expensive but thorough
Telcordia Blue Book - Manual of Construction Procedures
Document Number SR-1421, Issue Number 07, Issue Date Jan 2023

Is The FOA CFOT® A License?
Q: Can you use a CFOT certification to install fiber and charge for it? Or do you need other licenses as well? ;
A: FOA Certification is considered evidence of competence and accepted worldwide by many companies, groups, etc. Licenses are a legal credential required by local authorities to conduct business for anything from a barber to a truck triver to contractors doing fiber or other work. Most locales require a license as a contractor which may require a fiber specialty. You need to investigate this with your local authorities.

Updating FOA Courses And Reference Materials
Q: How often are FOA courses updated? And when they get updated, what happens to those who would have done a previous version?
A: The FOA certifications are updated as needed to stay current with technology and applications. Udates are incremental and we do not require current certification holders to retake courses or exams. Some of our updates are almost humorous. For example, over the last 20 years the definitions of “hybrid” and “composite” cables have flipped twice in several international standards. At the last time, we changed all references to these cable types in all our materials to note the confusion it creates, then purged all questions from our exams that covered this confusing topic.

Past questions can be found on the FAQs page.

Fiber Optic Color Codes Reference Chart
Q: Has anyone made a fiber optic pocket reference chart that has cable color orders, frequencies, or other commonly used info on it?
A: The FOA has a page on its Online Guide that covers color codes (https://foa.org/tech/ColCodes.htm). It is the most popular page in the FOA Guide! It works great with a smartphone.

More Q&A in the FOA FAQs Page

The word on the "Dig Once" program is getting out - FOA is getting calls from cities asking us for information and advice. Here are some links:

The DoT page on the administration’s Executive Order: http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/policy/otps/exeorder.cfm

And the one to download and hand out:
A “How To” Guide from The Global Connect Initiative: https://share.america.gov/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/6.-GCI-Dig-Once.pdf

Training / FiberU

News and resources to help you learn more and stay updated.

Learn about the fiber optic/ broadband workforce

Find a listing of all the FOA-Approved schools here.

Free online self-study programs on many fiber optics and cabling topics are available at Fiber U, FOA's online web-based training website.
Free online training at Fiber U

The FOA has >100 videos on

What Is An FOA Credential?
As FOA celebrates our 100,000th CFOT® certified technician, introduces the "FOA Badge In Fiber Optics" for others working in the field and adds new courses at Fiber U which offer a "Certificate of Completion," it's a good time to explain the differences between them. FOA has created a page to explain the differences in certifications, certificates and badges.

All FOA Certification Credentials Are Now Online
All FOA Certified Fiber Optic Technicians now have their certification credentials online.
if your FOA certification has not expired you should have been notified you have an online credential. If you did not get notification it may be because FOA did not have a valid email for you. Contact FOA to inquire about your certification credential.

More about FOA's network of approved training organizations.

The Types of Work Done By Fiber Techs And How It Affects Training

What is a fiber optic technician? What kinds of work do they do? Those topics were the center of FOA discussions with the US Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics that led to the new job category of "Telecommunications Technician" on the BLS website. The focus of this job category is primarily the installation and operation of the fiber optic cable plant, but one should not forget the cable plant must be designed also as part of a more extensive communications network.

In our discussion with the BLS analysts, we pointed out the various stages of a fiber optic communications network project and how techs with various knowledge and skill sets are needed and involved in every step. This web page on the fiber optic workforce describes how FOA defines these stages of a project and the skills of the techs needed. This is not unique to FOA; it's what has been traditional at telecom companies forever.

FOA School News

FOA's roster of approved schools is growing as more organizations recognize our expertise in workforce development and our comprehensive support for getting new schools started. FOA has over 25 years experience and nearly 100,000 certified fiber techs (with ~130,000 certifications). As a non-profit organization founded by the industry specifically to develop a competent workforce, FOA provides the consultation, curriculum and contacts to get schools started as a free service to new schools.

Complete listing of FOA Approved Training Organizations

Need A Fiber Optic Course Onsite? Invite an FOA School To Come To You

FOA often gets inquiries from an organization that has personnel that needs training in fiber optics. Recent inquiries have included contractors, a manufacturer of high-reliability products using fiber optics and a cable manufacturer. In many cases, where there are several people needing training, FOA can recommend a FOA Approved School and Certified Instructor who will come to their location to teach a class. The advantage is of course the savings in travel costs if the class comes to you, but it also offers the opportunity to customize the course to fit your needs, even use your equipment or work on your components, so the training is more relevant to those taking the class.

Contact FOA to discuss the idea of a custom, on-site class to see if it will better meet your needs.

Fiber U On-The-Job Training (OJT) Program

The FOA Fiber U OJT program for novices combines online study at Fiber U with OJT with mentoring by experienced co-workers and their supervisor to help new employees develop into experienced FOA-certified technicians.

The FOA Fiber U “OJT-To-Cert” program includes both fiber optics and premises cabling (copper, fiber & wireless), so it covers techs working in both outside plant and premises jobs.
Like other FOA programs, the OJT-To-Cert program is free. If you and/or your company is interested in the FOA OJT-To-Cert program, contact FOA.

To explain how OJT works and FOA's OJT-To-Cert program, FOA created a short video: Lecture 62: On The Job Training For Fiber Optics Using Fiber U

FOA Direct Certification Program For Experienced Fiber Optic Techs

Experience Plus Online Study At Fiber U = FOA Certification

Experienced fiber optic technicians can become FOA Certified using their experience in fiber optics and study for the FOA certification exams online at Fiber U. Thousands of industry professionals have applied to the FOA directly for certification without the need for classroom training, based on their knowledge and skills developed working the field. Since FOA certifications are based on KSAs (knowledge, skills and abilities), current techs can show the skills and abilities required through their field experience. FOA provides free online self-study courses at Fiber U for the knowledge part to prepare you for FOA certification exams which you can also take online.

If you are an experienced field tech interested in certification, and FOA is the internationally recognized certifying body for fiber optics, you can find out more about the FOA Direct Certification Program here.

If you are already a CFOT, FOA also offers many specialist certifications you can obtain based on your experience as a field tech. See what's available at Fiber U.

Fiber U "Basic Fiber Optics" Online Self-Study Course Now In Spanish
Curso Básico de Fibra Óptica de Fibra U en español.

New Fiber U Course: Fiber Characterization
Fiber characterization is the process for testing long fiber cable plants for its ability for carrying high speed communications. With so many networks now operating at 100, 200, 400 or even 800 Gb/s, fiber characterization is important, especially on older fiber optic cable plants.The free Fiber U Fiber Characterization course is available in two forms, as a standalone Fiber U fiber Characterization Course with its own Fiber U Certificate of Completion and as a separate Lesson in the Fiber U Fiber Optic Testing course. This course is recommended for those studying for the FOA CFOS/FC Fiber Characterization certification.

Fiber U MiniCourses: Got An Hour Or Less? Learn Something New About Fiber Optics.

FOA has introduced a new type of Fiber U course, the MiniCourse, a free online course you could take in a short time, perhaps as you ate lunch at your desk or took a coffee break. The topics of these courses should explain what they are about, and these are all very important topics to fiber optic techs.

New Fiber U MiniCourse - Fiber Optic Jargon
There is a new MiniCourse at Fiber U - Fiber Optic Jargon. Jargon is the most important thing you need to learn when you learn about a new technology. This short Fiber U MiniCourse is intended to introduce you to fiber optic jargon and make learning about fiber much easier. It's aimed at novices but is a good refresher for even experienced techs.

Fiber Optics In Communications

Fiber Optic Jargon

How Optical Fiber Works

Fiber Optic Network Restoration

Fiber Optic Connector Identification

Fiber U Color Codes

The Mysterious dB of Fiber Optics

Fiber Optic Cable Bend Radius

Fiber Optic Link Loss And Power Budgets

Fiber Optic Connector Inspection And Cleaning

Fiber Optic Media Conversion

Fiber Optic Cable Midspan Access

Reading An OTDR Trace

Reference Cables For Testing

Fiber Optic Attenuators

The courses have two components, video lectures and readings, that are complementary. As usual there is a self-test to allow you to check your comprehension. As with other Fiber U courses if you desire, you can take a short test for a Fiber U Certificate of Completion that costs only $10.

All these free courses and many more are available at Fiber U.

What Fiber Techs Don't Know -

What We Learn From FOA Certification Tests

As FOA moves more testing over to our digital online testing system at ClassMarker, we have access to more data about our testing, including what questions and topics on the tests are answered incorrectly most often. Having this data gives us an opportunity to evaluate the questions and how they are stated, but more importantly it allow us to help our instructors teach the subjects and us to change our curriculum and online courses to emphasize these particular topics. These are some of the topics that we have noticed are answered incorrectly more often in FOA and Fiber U tests.

Most of the questions missed are on testing.

1. OTDRs - particularly what information is in the OTDR trace.

2. The difference between dB and dBm

3. Loss budgets - both the concepts and doing the math

4. Insertion loss testing - single-ended or double ended for testing patchcords or cable plants, how to set 0dB references

5. Units of measure - fiber is measured in microns, wavelengths in nanometers, etc.

At FOA, we're working to add Fiber U MiniCourses on these topics and working with our schools to emphasize these topics in their classes.

If you are going to be taking a FOA certification course or test in the near future, these topics should be on your final exam study list.

What We Learn From Hands On Labs
We learn about students performance in hands-on labs from the feedback of our instructors and our own experiences too. One big problem is the use of hand tools. Growing up today, you learn how to use keyboards, mouses and touch screens, but decades ago, you also learned how to use basic hand tools. This is big enough of a problem that we're considering adding some video lessons on basic hand tools to prepare students for cable prep, termination and splicing that require the use of hand tools.

FOA offers free online self-study programs at Fiber U. Many users are preparing for FOA certification programs - taking courses at our schools or using the Direct Certification program. Some of our schools are requiring Fiber U programs as prerequisites for their classroom courses so they can spend more time on hands-on activities.

Publications / Resources

Cross Reference To FOA Tech Materials
FOA has so much technical reference material, we created a cross reference guide to the textbooks, Online Guide and Fiber U courses, all the FOA technical information. Besides the textbooks, online Guide and Fiber U, each section of the Guide also includes links to the 100+ FOA videos available.

Cross Reference Guide to Textbooks, Online Guide and Fiber U

FOA Guide To Fiber Optic Workforce Development

To help those new to fiber optic workforce development, FOA has created a web page we call "Fiber Optic Workforce Development." In this page, we share what we have learned about the fiber optic workforce, who they are and how they learn their trade. We discuss what defines a fiber optic tech and how they should be certified.

Read the FOA Guide To Fiber Optic Workforce Development online.

New Edition of FOA's Basic Fiber Optics Textbook

Just like they say in the product ads, it's new and improved!

It has been 5 years since we have updated the FOA Reference Guide To Fiber Optics, so it is certainly time for an update. The latest version is different enough we call it a new edition. Many of the updates are for new technologies which are reshaping the fiber optic industry like coherent transmission, BI fibers, etc. We've also added a section on the fiber optic workforce which has much relevance because this book is used to train those entering the workforce.

We've also worked on making the book more readable, adding formatting that eases reading and a new comprehensive index.

Inflation was an issue, but the price only goes up $2 to $29.95 for the paperback and $12.95 for the Kindle version.

The new edition of the FOA Reference Guide To Fiber Optics is available from Amazon and booksellers worldwide.

New In Spanish - Nuevo en español

FOA Spanish Textbook And Online Guide Updated

The FOA Spanish textbook and Online Guide on basic fiber optics has just been updated. The new version includes all the latest updates and is intended for use with FOA CFOT certification classes presented in Spanish. Both paperback and Kindle versions are available. The textbook and the updated CFOT class curriculum are available now.

Libro de texto en español y guía en línea de FOA actualizados
Se acaba de actualizar el libro de texto en español y la Guía Online de FOA sobre fibra óptica básica. La nueva versión incluye las últimas actualizaciones y está diseñada para usarse con las clases de certificación FOA CFOT presentadas en español. Están disponibles versiones de bolsillo y Kindle. El libro de texto y el plan de estudios actualizado de la clase CFOT ya están disponibles.

FOA Adds Fiber Optic Network Design in Spanish

The FOA Design textbook and course curriculum are available in Spanish also. The FOA CFOS/D curriculum in Spanish includes the necessary materials for an instructor to present the course in Spanish and give thCFOS/D certification exam in Spanish. The material is available to any FOA-approved school. For more infirmation on becoming a FOA approved school, go here.

El libro de texto de FOA Design y el plan de estudios del curso también están disponibles en español. El plan de estudios de FOA CFOS/D en español incluye los materiales necesarios para que un instructor presente el curso en español y dé el examen de certificación CFOS/D en español. El material está disponible para cualquier escuela aprobada por la FOA. Para obtener más confirmación sobre cómo convertirse en una escuela aprobada por la FOA, vaya aquí.

Best Seller: Fiber Broadband (Paperback and Kindle)

In less than half a century, fiber optics has revolutionized communications and to a large extent, society in general. Broadband, what many today call high speed Internet access, has become a necessity for everyone, not a luxury. The technology that makes broadband possible is fiber optics, connecting the continents, cities, and just about everybody. Even fiber to the home (FTTH) brings broadband to hundreds of millions worldwide.

How did we get from an era when communications was making a telephone call or sending a telegram to today’s world where every piece of information – and misinformation – is available at the click of a mouse or touch on a screen? How did we get from a time when a phone was connected on copper wires to being able to connect practically anywhere on a handheld device with more computing power than was available to scientists and engineers only decades ago?

How does broadband work? Without fiber optics it would not work.

This book is not the typical FOA technical textbook - it is written for anyone who wants to understand fiber broadband or fiber optics or the Internet. It's also aimed at STEM teachers who want to include communications technology in their classes. This book will try to explain not only how fiber broadband works, but how it was developed. It is intended to be an introduction to communications technology appropriate for a communications course at almost any level (junior high, high school or college,) for managers involved with broadband projects, or for anyone who just wonders how all this stuff works.

The Fiber Optic Association Guide To Fiber Broadband

Paperback ($12.95) and Kindle ($9.95) versions available from Amazon or most booksellers. Kindle version is in color!

More Translations of FOA Textbooks

FOA is a very international organization and it works hard to accommodate the language needs of everyone. We have been translating our books and website into the languages most requested, and this month, we add two more textbook translations. We also want to thank Jerry Morla, FOA CFOS/I instructor and Director who has been doing the recent translations into Spanish, his native language.

Here is a listing of all the FOA textbook Translations

Spanish Editions:
Guía de Referencia de la Asociación de Fibra Óptica (FOA) Sobre Fibra Óptica: Guía de estudio para la certificación de la FOA Amazon
La Referencia de Cableado para Predios de la FOA: Guía para Certificación de la FOA   Amazon
La Asociación de Fibra Óptica Manual de Fibra Hasta el Hogar : Para Planificadores, Gestores, Diseñadores, Instaladores y Operadores De FTTH Amazon
Guía de Referencia de la FOA sobre Diseño de la red de fibra óptica: Guía de Estudio para la Certificación de la FOA Amazon

And the FOA Reference Guide To Fiber Optics:
French Edition: Le Guide de référence de la FOA pour la fibre optique et et guide d'étude pour la certification FOA: Guide d'étude pour la certification FOA Amazon
Portuguese Edition: Guia de Referência sobre Fibra Óptica da FOA : Guia de Estudo para a Certificação da FOA Amazon
The subject matter of these books is also translated in the FOA Guide online.

Planning A Fiber Optic Project?
The FOA Guide To Fiber Optic Projects includes this timeline and comments on project planning and implementation.

FOA Video Lectures On YouTube

Did you know YouTube will close caption videos in many languages?

Sign in with Google to get translations for closed captioning. Click on the settings icon (red arrow.) Choose "Subtitles". English is the default language. Click on the arrow after "English (auto-generated) >". In the new window click on "Auto-translate" and choose the language you want.

FOA Loss Budget Calculator On A Web Page 5/2020

FOA has written many articles about loss budgets, something everyone involved in fiber optics needs to know and needs to know how to calculate. We recently discovered how to get a spreadsheet ported to a Web page, so we created this web page that calculates loss budgets. We have an iOS loss budget app, but with this web page, you can calculate loss budgets from any device, smart phone, tablet, laptop, or desktop computer that has web browsing capability.

Bookmark this page (especially on your smartphone): FOA Loss Budget Calculator Online

We are continually updating the Online Reference Guide to keep up with changes in the industry and adding lots of new pages of technical information. When you go to the FOA Guide Table of Contents to see the latest updates - look for .

Fiber Optics (4 languages), Premises Cabling, OSP fiber and construction, Network Design, Testing, FTTH Handbook and our latest - FIber Broadband

   The FOA has it's own reference books for everyone working in fiber optics - contractors, installers and end users as well as for use as textbooks in classes at educational institutions. They are available as printed books or Kindle at much lower prices than most textbooks since we self-publish and sell online, cutting out the middlemen. Click on the book images for more information. The Reference Guide To Fiber Optics is also available in Spanish, French and Portuguese. The Design book is available in English and Spanish.

Click on any book for more information about it.

FOA has reprinted

"Lennie Lightwave's Guide" on its 25th anniversary in a special print edition.

Lennie and Uncle Ted's Guides are online.

Click on any of the books to learn more.

Fiber Optic Safety Poster to download and print

Resources For Teachers In K-12 And Technical Schools
Teachers in all grades can introduce their students to fiber optic technology with some simple demonstrations. FOA has created a page for STEM or STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and math) teachers with materials appropriate to their classes. Fiber Optic Resources For Teachers.

Safety

On Safety

New Fiber U Course: Fiber Optic Safety

Safety must be the first concern of everyone involved in a fiber optic project, including those planning, designing, managing or supervising and of course those doing the installation.

FOA is often asked about safety for fiber optics. Some inquiries ask where it's covered in the FOA Online Guide or textbooks or if we have a course on safety at Fiber U. Almost all Fiber U Courses have lessons covering safety, because safety is important in every aspect of a fiber optic project.

This new Fiber U course will focus on safety alone. There are two lessons in this course, fiber optic construction and fiber optic installation. The dividing line between the two courses is the installation of the fiber optic cables. Construction leads up to and/or is completed when the cables are installed. Installation begins when the fiber tech installs the cable, then completes the splicing, termination testing and documentation. The overlap between the two is the installation of the cables where both construction personnel and fiber optic techs are involved.

Here is the new Fiber U "Fiber Optic Safety" self-study program. Take the course and get your certificate of completion.

Enhance your safety with the FOA Safety Vest.

The FOA is concerned about safety!
FOA considers safety an integral part of all our programs, curriculum materials and technical materials. We start all our textbooks and their online versions with a section on safety in the first chapter, like this: Before we get started - Safety First!

There are pages on the FOA Guide on Safety procedures Including Eye Safety and. Digging Safely

And a YouTube lecture: FOA Lecture 2: Safety When Working With Fiber Optics

In our OSP Construction Section, these pages cover many safety issues including those related to the construction of the cable plant: Project Preparation And Guidelines, Underground Cable Construction, Underground Cable Installation and Aerial Cable Installation.

There is even a safety poster for the fiber activities: PDF Safety Rules For Fiber Optics

Other Safety Resources:

There is a toll-free "call before you dig" number in the USA: Dial 811. See www.call811.com for more information in the US. Here is their map of resources by states.

In Canada, it's "Click Before You Dig.com" They also have a page of resources by US states and Canadian provinces.

The Common Ground Alliance has an excellent "Best Practices Guide" online

The US Department of Transportation has a website called "National Pipeline Mapping System" that allows one to search for buried pipelines.

Why We Warn You To Be Careful About Fiber Shards

Photo courtesy Brian Brandstetter, Mississauga Training Consultantcy

FOA/About

About The FOA

Contact Us: http://www.foa.org or email <info@foa.org>

FOA has a company page and four LinkedIn Groups

FOA - official company page on LinkedIn

FOA - covers FOA, technology and jobs in the fiber optic marketplace

FOA Fiber Optic Training - open to all, covers fiber optic technology and training topics

Grupo de La Asociación de Fibra Óptica FOA (Español) What is The FOA?

The FOA is a, international non-profit educational association chartered to promote professionalism in fiber optics through education, certification and standards.

Founded in 1995 by a dozen prominent fiber optics trainers and leaders from education, industry and government as a professional society for fiber optics and a source of independent certification, the FOA has grown to now being involved in numerous activities to educate the world about fiber optics and certify the workers who design, build and operate the world's fiber optic networks.

Read More

FOA History

FOA Timeline of Fiber Optics

Contact Us
The Fiber Optic Association Inc.
https://www.foa.org or email <info@foa.org>
https://www.thefoa.org or email <info@thefoa.org>
Telephone/text: 760-451-3655

The FOA Home Page

Want to know more about fiber optics? Study for FOA certifications? Free Self-Study Programs are on "Fiber U®." Looking for specific information? Here's the largest technical reference on the web: The FOA Online Fiber Optic Reference Guide.

Free online self-study programs on many fiber optics and cabling topics are available at Fiber U, FOA's online web-based training website.

Contact Us
The Fiber Optic Association Inc.

The FOA Home Page

Fiber Optic Timeline

(C)1999-2025, The Fiber Optic Association, Inc.

FOA Logo Merchandise

New FOA Swag! Shirts, Caps, Stickers, Cups, etc.

The FOA has created a store on Zazzle.com offering lots of new logo merchandise. It has lots of versions of shirts and other merchandise with "FOA," "Fiber U," "Lennie Lightwave" designs and more so you should find something just for you! See FOA on Zazzle.

Your Name, CFOT® - It pays to advertise!

The FOA encourages CFOTs to use the logo on their business cards, letterhead, truck or van, etc. and provides logo files for that purpose. But we are also asked about how to use the CFOT or CFOS certifications. Easy, you can refer to yourself as "Your Name, CFOT" or "Your Name, CFOS/T" for example.

Feel free to use the logo and designations to promote your achievements and professionalism!
Contact FOA at info@thefoa.org to get logos in file format for your use.

Privacy Policy (for the EU GDPR): The FOA does not use cookies or any other web tricks to gather information on visitors to our website, nor do we allow commercial advertising. Our website hosts may gather traffic statistics for the visitors to our website and our online testing service, ClassMarker, maintains statistics of test results. We do not release or misuse any information on any of our members except we will confirm FOA certifications and Fiber U certificates of completion when requested by appropriate persons such as employers or personnel services.
Read the complete FOA Privacy Policy here.

July 2025

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INDEX

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Time To Renew Your FOA Certifications?

Jobs

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Want to be notified when the FOA Newsletter is updated? Sign up for the FOA eMail Newsletter.

Trademarks: The FOA logo and name, CFOT® (Certified Fiber Optic Technician) and Fiber U® (the FOA online learning site) are registered trademarks of the FOA.

Want to know more about fiber optics? Looking for specific information? Here's the largest technical reference on the web: The FOA Online Fiber Optic Reference Guide.

Free online self-study programs on many fiber optics and cabling topics are available at Fiber U, FOA's online web-based training website.

FOA Reference Books

Available Printed or eBooks

The fiber book is available in Spanish and French

Click on any of the books to learn more.

FOA Videos on

FOA is a member of:

The FOA Newsletter is edited by Jim Hayes - send your stories, leads, ideas, comments to <jim @ foa.org>

Time To Renew Your FOA Certifications?

Monthly "1 Minute Survey"

FOA Hits 30 - 3 Decades Serving The Fiber Optic World

FOA is looking forward to many more years of helping develop the fiber optic workforce!

FOA Microcredentials At Fiber U And Colleges

FOA Badge In Fiber Optics - Now available in Spanish - Ahora también disponible en español

Seen On The Street - This Month's Photos

What Is An FOA Credential?

And now, introducing a new FOA credential: The "FOA Badge In Fiber Optics"

New Fiber U Course: Fiber Optic Safety Covers Construction And Installation

New Edition of FOA's Basic Fiber Optics Textbook

New/Updated Web Pages

FOA Newsletter Sections

News

Installation In Environmental Extremes - Iraq

FOA Courses Around The World

FOA Training In Baja California

FOA Training In Hyderabad, India

Spectrum says would-be copper thieves caused internet outage affecting L.A., Ventura counties

Updating A Century-Old Subway Signal System (From June Newsletter)

Data Centers

Power Bills Are Squeezing Georgians

America’s grid is stretched thin.

Talen Energy and Amazon sign nuclear power deal to fuel data centers

Back To The (Fusion) Future

Progress Shouldn’t Poison Black Communities

US Broadband Reports

RDOF Defaults Keep Coming

More Than 40 Lawmakers Urge Lutnick to Reverse New BEAD Guidance

At least half of BEAD locations no longer eligible for funding, report claims

Minnesota To Require Underground Telecom Installer Certification

Quote Of The Month/Year (maybe Century!) (this is worth repeating)

Technical

Fiber optic technology, standards, equipment, installation, etc.

Tech Trivia: Who Invented The OTDR?

Tech Articles From FOA's Worldwide Network Of Advisors

What FOA's Instructors And Technical Advisors Are Telling Us

Aerial Cable Plant Workmanship

Is It Just The OTDR Or Is Singlemode Loss Really Directional?

A Quiet But Important Change In The Fiber Optic Cable You Buy

Updated FOA OTDR Trainer

How Good Are Your OTDR Launch/Receive Cables?

NECA/FOA 301 fiber optic installation standard withdrawn

FTTH Technical Papers

Recycling Fiber Optic Cables? Contact LD4 Recycle

Learning Important Information From A Found Cable Scrap

Managing Fiber Optic Projects - The Gantt Chart

(With An Excel File To Make Your Own)

Help On Color Codes (Including Copper Cabling And Fiber Optics)

Warning For Techs Doing OSP Restoration

Try The FOA's Online Loss Budget Calculator

Worth Reading

Each month we read hundreds of newsletters and online articles. These are the ones we think you will find "worth reading."

FOA Timeline of Fiber Optic History and the new FOA video "The History Of Fiber Optics"

Worth Reading (And Watching Or Listening):

Worth Reading - History & Technical

FOA was founded in 1995 - FOA's History

VIAVI Books On Fiber Optic Testing (2 volumes) - They're back!

Q&A

The FOA Fiber FAQs Page (FAQs = frequently asked questions) gathers up questions readers have asked us (which first ran in this newsletter) and adds tech topics of general interest.