Installation

Here’s a look at the equipment that needs to be installed outside your home or office. Please note that although we’ll need to install two small boxes, we’ll probably be removing some things, too. What are we looking at here? On the left, you’ll be getting a new electric meter. No more spinning hands – this one has an LCD display.

The new fiber from the EPB comes to the small box on the far right. The technical guys call it an ONT (Optical Network Terminal). You’ll call it the coolest thing to happen to your home’s services since air conditioning. A very small wire comes into that box – that’s the new fiber optic line. Your other new wires come out and go to your cable TV wiring, your outside telephone box and an Ethernet wire goes to your computer (or your router).

The box in the center contains a battery backup. It will power your home’s services for several hours in the event of a power outage. Obviously, it won’t power your home’s appliances, but it will keep your phone working for quite a long time. Also, if no cables are actually cut and your computer is battery powered (in other words, a laptop or notebook computer), you’ll still have Internet service!

Our first visit (outside work only):
On our first trip to your home or office, we would hook up outside what you see above. You don’t even have to be home for this part. As a matter of fact, you might not even notice that we’ve done anything if you don’t look too close. However, since we have to replace your meter, your power will be off for 2 or 3 minutes. We’ll also run the fiber optic line into the ONT.

Then, we’ll leave you some information about the service. This will include a letter asking you to get in touch with us and schedule an installation. When you call us, we’ll set up a specific time and we’ll stick as close to that appointment as we can. Of course, we welcome any questions that you may have. At this point, everything is ready to be hooked up. We’re just waiting to hear from you.

Our second visit (your install!):
When you call us to schedule your actual installation, we’ll come to your home. Remember that a lot of the outside work will already be done. Here’s what we need to do, based on the specific EPB services you have:

Cable TV – Your cable drops probably already run to a common point outside, near the meter. Lucky us! That’s where we’ve just put the new box! We simply hook up your cable drops. No longer any need for multiple drops coming to your house, just because you have several TV’s or outlets!

Internet Service – We’ll need to run a new Ethernet wire from the ONT outside to your computer inside. If you’re using a hub, the Ethernet runs to the hub instead. By the way, tell your cable modem goodbye. You won’t be using it anymore. Never again will you hear the question, “Have you rebooted your cable modem?” Your computer is hooked straight into the network of the future by fiber optics.

Telephone Service – This is as easy as it can be. We simply run one short wire from the ONT over to the existing phone box on the outside of your house. If you’ve been using the EPB’s phone service, you will no longer need the RSU inside (the phone modem).

Electricity – As we mentioned, you’ll be getting a new electric meter. This meter will also hook into the system. We can read your electric meter through the fiber. You can, too! You’ll also be able to take advantage of the EPB’s WebPortal. This is a host of new services, but one of them gives you the ability to look at how much electricity you’ve used so far that day or so far this month. You can even see a graph of your usage for the last several hours. Finally, you’ll be able to see that it’s not those lights that are causing your bill to go up. It’s that HVAC or your water heater or your refrigerator (mostly anyway).

What are the advantages to the EPB’s new Fiber To The Home system?

Reliability – Fiber should bring you greater reliability than you’ve ever had before. You should have fewer outages with all your services (except electricity). Even though this won’t affect your electric power’s reliability, the ONT will contact us when your power is off! We might know about an outage at your house even before you contact us.

No matter where you live, there are amplifiers and power supplies on poles between our office and your home. Any of those can develop a problem – or even fail. If they stop working, you no longer receive a signal and there goes your TV program. The signal levels can get too high or too low and your computer stops communicating. Your cable modem can stop working, or need to be rebooted, and you have Internet trouble. Your telephone modem can develop a problem and you lose dialtone. While the EPB’s services normally work very well with very few outages, they still happen from time to time. Frankly, we hate outages more than you do. Fiber means no more telephone modems, no more cable modems, and no more amplifiers. If our lasers are working correctly at our office and your fiber hasn’t been cut, you have service! Fiber To The Home removes all these potential weak links.

Quality of Service – Simply put, your services should look better and work better than they ever have before! Fewer devices involved means greater reliability (because there are fewer possible things to fail). Your TV’s should have a clarity like you’ve never seen, whether it’s regular cable, digital or High-Definition. Your Internet service won’t have a cable modem to reboot and your service will be faster than you’ve ever seen anywhere. Phone service should sound crystal clear, too.

Appearance – No, not the appearance of your TV picture or how fast Webpages appear. We mean the outside appearance near your electric meter and the overhead wires coming to your house (if your wiring is overhead instead of underground). All of your cable TV wires and your telephone drop can be replaced with a single fiber optic line less than half the diameter of a pencil. Not only a much smaller size, but much greater speed and channel capacity! It doesn’t really make sense, but it’s true. Just like cable TV wiring is better at delivering signal than small twisted pair telephone wire, fiber optic lines are actually that much better than coaxial cable.

Safety – Fiber optics are practically immune to all types of interference, including lightning and radio waves. It’s glass, so it doesn’t conduct electricity, making it even safer for your home’s electronics.

Security – Are you concerned about security? The EPB certainly is (remember, we’ve just built a storm-proof bunker to house the electronics that provide Glasgow and Barren County with these advanced services). However, from a privacy standpoint, fiber optics are very difficult to “tap.” Also, there is no radiation at all from a fiber.

Lifespan of the wiring – This is probably the last time your home will ever need to be wired. The fiber optic line is made of glass. It won’t corrode and it’s unaffected by most chemicals. It’s not just that it will last a LONG time, but it should provide all the bandwidth that you will ever need.