Fibre Optic Installation in Singapore: What the Job Involves, From Survey to Handover

A fibre optic installation is six jobs in a row: survey the route, make sure there is somewhere for the cable to go, pull it in without damaging it, splice or terminate the ends, test every core, and hand over records someone can use later. Most of the time on a job goes into the first two and the last two. The pulling itself is often the shortest part.

1. Survey: where the cable will actually go

The survey answers three questions before anything is priced: where the fibre starts and ends, what route it can physically take between those points, and when the crew can get in. A drawing shows the intended route. Only a walk of the site shows the riser that is already full, the ceiling space with no access hatch, or the manhole that floods.

On a live site, the survey also settles what is running nearby. Fibre added next to services already in use, in an exchange, an MDF room or a working tunnel, has to be planned around them rather than discovered on the night.

2. Containment: somewhere for the cable to sit

Fibre needs a route it can sit in for twenty years: tray, trunking, conduit or duct. Where containment is missing or full, it has to be built first, and on many jobs that is the larger half of the work. Fibre also has a minimum bend radius. Tight corners in trunking that suit copper can stress a fibre cable into losing light, or into failing later.

If containment is someone else's scope, it is worth confirming before the fibre crew is booked that it is in, it has room, and its bends suit fibre. Our page on cable support systems covers what good containment looks like.

3. Pulling the cable

Fibre is pulled with care for tension and bend radius. It is pulled slower than copper, with the load on the cable's strength member rather than the fibres, and with enough slack left at each end for splicing and for a repair years later. Every cable is labelled at both ends as it goes in, because an unlabelled cable in a full tray is a cable nobody can safely touch again.

Outside the building, the same work happens in telecom manholes, ducts and joint bays, often under traffic or at night. That is a different environment with its own access rules; see outside plant cabling.

4. Splicing or termination

The ends of the cable have to be joined to something: another cable, or a connector that plugs into equipment. There are two sound ways to do it.

Fusion splicing joins each fibre to a factory-made pigtail or to another cable by welding the glass, inside a splice tray in an ODF, patch panel or joint closure. It gives the lowest loss and suits high core counts, long runs and anything outdoors. It needs a trained splicer and a fusion splicing machine on site.

Pre-terminated cable arrives with connectors already fitted and tested in the factory. It is quick to install but has to be ordered to the exact length, and it needs a route wide enough for the connector ends to pass.

The right choice depends on the route and the core count, not on preference. Either way, the panels at each end have to match the core count, the connector type and the space they go into. More on the cost side in what fusion splicing actually costs.

5. Testing every core

Every core is tested before handover. A light source and power meter gives the total loss on each link against its budget. An OTDR trace shows the loss at every splice and connector along the way, which is what finds the one bad joint hiding inside an acceptable total. Which one your handover needs depends on the job; OTDR vs power meter explains the difference, and reading an OTDR trace explains what the results mean.

6. Handover: the records that outlast the job

A finished installation is a cable plus its records: the route as built, the labelling at both ends, the core allocation at each panel, and the test readings for every core. These are what the next contractor, or the same one at 3 a.m. after a cable cut, will work from. If they are not handed over, the knowledge leaves with the crew.

Where the time actually goes

On most jobs the programme is set by access, not by metres of cable. The things that stretch it are predictable:

• Working hours limited to nights or weekends, as in rail, airports, exchanges and occupied buildings
• Permits, escorts and confined-space requirements for manholes, tunnels and plant rooms
• Containment that is missing, full or not yet installed by another trade
• Live services nearby that have to be protected while the new work goes in
• Equipment at the ends that has not been chosen, so panels and connectors cannot be ordered

None of these show on a drawing, which is why the survey comes first.

What to have ready before you ask for a quote

A contractor can only quote what you describe. These six things turn a guess into a price you can compare:

1. Where the fibre starts and ends, and roughly what lies between
2. The number of cores, and single-mode or multimode if known
3. What it connects to at each end, and the connector type the equipment needs
4. Whether containment exists, and whose scope it is
5. When the site can be worked, and any permit or escort rules
6. What test results and records you need at handover

How to compare the quotes that come back is covered in how to compare structured cabling contractors. Which licence the contractor needs is covered in IMDA licence, BCA workhead or neither.

Where Fiber Tech sits

Fiber Tech Solutions Pte Ltd has installed, spliced, tested and maintained fibre optic and copper infrastructure across Singapore since 2007, from single joints to cable counts of 288 cores in live exchanges, and across more than 1,000 buildings. The company holds IMDA Wiring Contractor (Class) Licence No. IW105464, its Director is certified by The Fiber Optic Association as CFOT and CFOS/T, and its crews own and operate the splicing machines, OTDRs and power meters the work needs. To discuss a job, get in touch.

— Written by the team at Fiber Tech Solutions Pte Ltd, IMDA-licensed wiring contractor and FOA-certified fibre specialists, Singapore.