KUB is in the middle of building a powerful fiber internet network across Knox County, and thousands of homes are already connected. If you've seen our trucks in your neighborhood, you might be wondering what exactly goes into delivering reliable, high-speed fiber internet to your home.
In this post, we break down the 3 phases and 7 key stages of the KUB Fiber buildout so you'll know what to expect as fiber is brought to your neighborhood.
Phase A: Planning and Preparation
The first phase of building out fiber begins with our extensive planning and preparation efforts. You may occasionally see surveyors and engineers out in the field carefully studying the installation sites, but much of this work is conducted behind the scenes and out of sight.
Stage 1: Fiber Network Engineering: During this stage of planning, engineers will design and develop plans and specifications for review and approval for the fiber optic network.
Stage 2: Permits and Access Routes: At this stage in the planning process, the primary focus is on acquiring access to all necessary routes, rights-of-way, and finalizing all relevant government permits to ensure the project is cleared to proceed.
Much of this work has already been completed throughout our service territory, but there are still neighborhoods where KUB Fiber isn't yet available, plus some apartments in serviceable areas that need additional planning and preparation before service becomes active.
Phase B: Construction of the Fiber Network
Next, we move on to the actual construction of the fiber infrastructure. During this intensive phase, you may see us digging holes and installing the equipment and fiber lines. When we're done, we will return all sidewalks and green spaces to the way we found them.
Stage 3: Fiber Cable Construction: The construction stage is focused on building the network by either burying fiber optic cables in the ground or hanging aerial lines (fortunately for us, these lines are constructed along existing KUB power lines and infrastructure).
Stage 4: Fiber Splicing and Testing: Splicing is focused on connecting — that is, closing the loops — on the various pieces of fiber used to build the network. These connections are important to ensure data and information flow at the speed of light.
Phase C: Service Delivery to Your Home
After months of planning and constructing the fiber infrastructure, our fiber is just about ready to be delivered to your home! The timing of the following three steps can vary, so please keep that in mind as you await your personal installation.
Stage 5: Service Drop Installation: During this stage, our teams will place boxes in your neighborhood so that they can place the fiber line that will eventually connect the network to your home (again, depending on the design, it could be buried or aerial lines).
Stage 6: Drops Splicing & ONT Setup: Once the service drop is complete, the splicing team will ensure there is connectivity between the network and an optical network terminal, which will be placed on the side (typically) of your home.
Stage 7: Final Fiber Internet Installation: After the previous six stages are complete, we will light up the network and our installation team will connect to your home to receive service.
Remember that, despite the wait and occasional inconveniences over the construction timeline, once we’ve completed our work, you’ll have access to the fastest, most reliable internet available today. With KUB Fiber, your family can be more productive, enjoy pristine streaming picture quality for TV and movies, distortion-free video calling, riveting online gaming, and all the other online activities that have become a part of your life.
Want to check your neighborhood's status or get notified when KUB Fiber is available at your address?
Visit our Fiber Availability tool.
Visit our Construction FAQ page.