What Does Fiber to the Curb Mean?
Fiber to the curb refers to the installation and use of optical fiber cable directly to curbs near homes or businesses. Fiber to the curb is designed as a replacement for plain old telephone service. Coaxial cable or another medium carries signals the short distance from the curb to the home or business.
Fiber to the curb uses existing coaxial or twisted-pair infrastructures in order to provide last-mile service. As such, this system is inexpensive to employ. The basic idea of fiber to curb technology is that suitable wires can carry high-speed signals at short distances. The twisted wire pairs or coaxial cables have acceptable bandwidth loss while sending signals only a few hundred feet.
Also known as integrated fiber in the loop (IFITL).
Techopedia Explains Fiber to the Curb
Fiber to the curb is a telecommunication system based on fiber-optic cables running to platforms that serve numerous customers. The customers are connected to the platforms through twisted pairs or coaxial cables. Fiber to the curb allows for the delivery of broadband service such as high-speed Internet. High-speed communication protocols are used to transmit the signal between the customer and the cabinet. Data rates differ according to the protocol used and the distance between the customer and the cabinet.
Fiber to curb refers to optical fiber that is already used for the long distance part of telephone calls and Internet use. It differs from fiber to the node (FTTN) and fiber to the premises (FTTP) based on the placement of the cabinet; in FTTN, the cabinet is placed far from customers, while with FTTP, the cabinet is placed at serving locations.
