I was in a 1990s apartment building in Portland when I saw my first fiber splice

We were running coax for a new cable package, and the building manager showed us the telecom room where they'd just installed a fiber line. I watched the tech fuse two hair-thin glass strands together with a little machine that looked like a sci-fi movie prop. That was the moment I knew copper was on the way out (even if it took a while). Anyone else remember the first time you saw fiber being worked on?

3 comments

3 Comments

fionaf191mo ago

Seeing that first fiber splice really was a glimpse of the future. It felt like watching history happen right in front of you, even if the changeover took years. I had a similar moment of understanding that things would never be the same.

linda_knight511mo ago

Wait, you actually saw a fiber splice happen? @fionaf19 that's wild. I figured that stuff was all done in some secret lab.

avery_fox9316d ago

My buddy worked for the phone company back in the day. He told me about watching them run the first fiber line through his town, saying it felt like magic seeing that thin glass thread. He knew right then that his old copper cable job was basically over. It's like what @linda_knight51 said, you don't think about the real people doing it. But for him, it was just a Tuesday, watching his whole career path change in an instant. He said the weirdest part was how quiet it all was, no big announcement, just the future showing up.