CableWholesale 6-Strand Fiber Indoor/Outdoor Fiber Optic Cable, Singlemode, OS2 9/125 Micron, Black, Riser Rated, Spool, 1000 feet

Great product and wonderful price. I had to run a 930 ft run of this fiber to have a wireless access point at my front gate where we live in acreage. Ran from the house in electrical conduit in 10 ft sections with flared ends to easy to match and stay together without glue. While this product may be able to be direct burial (not sure) I wanted to be sure it was well protected especially since we have rocky soil, plus from any critters over the years. I buried it 2-3 ft deep since I was going across a large pasture that we regularly plow and plant so it needed to be well below the 6-8" plow line. I also used a TP-Link Gigabit Ethernet Converter at both ends (so 2 total) so I could transition from fiber optic cable back to Cat6 both at the house into my router to provide internet connection and then into the wireless access point that I setup at front gate. Be sure to set both devices to "force" using the switch on back if you do the same. Also unless you're a professional at terminating fiber, plan to hire someone. Not because it's particularly difficult as long as you buy approx $100 worth of tools to terminate the fiber, but because a professional who works with fiber everyday with have equipment that cost $1,000's to setup and properly test your fiber for signal, db loss, etc. Also, as an FYI the reason I used fiber in this case is because Cat5 and Cat6 are only good for 100 meters (approx 328 ft) whereas I believe 9/125 single mode fiber is rated for 5km (approx 3.1 miles). Lastly, while multimode fiber can carry more data, it has more reflections and therefore can't carry as long of a distance as single mode. Also single mode is much cheaper. For my purposes, single mode carried tons more data than I would ever require running security cameras at my front gate. Also, be sure and educate yourself on the different types of cable (i.e. distribution cable vs. breakout vs. patch) as they all have their specific purposes and advantages. Be sure to use a distribution panel at each end then come out of it with a sturdy patch cable. Panels can be found for $100's but using a simple plastic one for $25-30 is just fine for residential. Important part is that once fiber is terminated into the panel, you only handle/connect/disconnect the patch cable coming out of the panel as opposed to the long run of fiber that is generally more fragile that is coming into the panel. Bottom line this cable worked great for me and I hope the additional info is helpful to you in your considerations and install.

I did not like this fiber at all. The glass is way to brittle. You have to be so careful cleaving and preparing it to terminate. I would never purchase it again. I bought it in a bind my local distributor was out of stock. Spent way too much time terminating clips due to the glass breaking. I have never experienced this frustration with fiber before.

Nothing fancy here. Just a basic spool with 1000' of six-strand singlemode fiber optic cable. We did both puck and polish terminations and fusion splicing of pigtails to this spool and everything worked as expected. We shot an OTDR down the spool and found no anomolies or issues that would indicate a quality control problem nor any reason not to buy this. All in all it's a great value for the money for a non-armored cable without a strength member. As long as you don't plan on using this for aerial drops or harsh environments, you won't be disappointed.

terminated multiple times, bad attenuation and put a otdr on it only one fiber is in spec

This is my 2nd spool, the first one I ran I assumed I had damaged it pulling it through the conduit so I purchased another roll and did the run all over again. Being extremely careful to not pull too hard. When stripping and cleaving the glass breaks very easily, but we overcame that with Belden Fused LC connectors. It passes a red light through so we know the cable is not broken but it will not link with multiple devices and connectors. One more attempt will be to switch from single fiber SPF’s to duplex SFP’s but my expectations are low. I assume it cannot be returned after its been run 280m but please let me know if there is anything you can do for me, I would happily accept a 2 fibre 1000’ roll? This would allow me to update this rating if the company assists here.