If your fibre broadband cable has been cut, or you want to extend a fibre run to an outbuilding, you will quickly run into two terms: splicing and termination. They solve different problems, and knowing which one your job needs saves you time and money before you book an engineer. Here is the plain-English difference, based on the jobs we see most often across Edinburgh, the Lothians and the North of England.
Splicing joins two lengths of bare fibre together, usually by fusion splicing, where a machine melts the glass ends so they become one continuous strand. It is the fibre equivalent of welding, and a good fusion splice loses almost no signal, typically under 0.05 dB.
Termination puts a connector on the end of a fibre so it can plug into equipment, a wall outlet or a patch panel. In UK homes that usually means an SC or LC connector, most often fitted by splicing a factory-made pigtail onto your fibre rather than polishing a connector on site.
The classic case is a damaged cable. A fence post through the drop cable, a strimmer catching the lead-in at the garden wall, or rodent damage in a loft all call for a splice, because you are reconnecting an existing run rather than creating a new end point.
Splicing is also how longer runs are built. If you are taking fibre 60 or 80 metres down the garden to an office, an engineer will often run external-grade cable and splice pre-terminated tails at each end, because pulling a connectorised cable through ducting risks damaging the plug.
Termination is the answer when a fibre exists but has nowhere to plug in. Common examples: moving the small white optical outlet (the ONT wall box) to a better room during a renovation, adding a fibre outlet in a new extension, or finishing a duct run a builder left as bare cable coiled in the wall.
One important caveat for homeowners: the fibre from the street to your Openreach or CityFibre ONT belongs to the network operator, and only they should touch it. Independent engineers like us work on your side of that box, which covers internal runs, outbuildings and private networks between buildings.
For a straightforward domestic visit, expect a call-out plus labour somewhere in the £90 to £180 range for a repair splice or a couple of terminations, with the visit typically taking one to two hours. Larger jobs, such as a full garden office link with external cable, ducting and terminated ends at both sides, more commonly land between £250 and £600 depending on distance and how much groundwork is involved.
The honest answer is that access drives the price more than the fibre work itself. A splice takes minutes once the cable is prepared; lifting decking, rodding a blocked duct or working at height on a gable end is where the time goes. A reputable firm will quote after seeing photos or the site rather than guessing over the phone.
Realistically, no, and not for lack of nerve. Fusion splicers cost from around £600 for a usable machine to several thousand pounds for the kit professionals carry, and you also need a cleaver, strippers and ideally an optical power meter to prove the joint works. For a one-off repair the maths never favours buying the tools.
There is one safe DIY route: if both ends of your run are already terminated, you can buy pre-terminated patch leads and couplers and simply plug things together. Anything involving bare glass, which sheds tiny shards and carries invisible laser light on live links, is worth leaving to someone with the equipment and the eye protection.
If the damage is between the street and your provider's optical box (the ONT), report it to your broadband provider, as that cable is theirs to repair, often free of charge. If it is cabling you had installed beyond that box, such as a run to an outbuilding, a local fibre engineer can splice it.
Very nearly. A properly made fusion splice typically loses less than 0.05 dB of signal, which is negligible for a home connection, and it is protected inside a heat-shrink sleeve and enclosure so it lasts for decades.
A simple rule: repairing or extending a run means splicing, creating a point to plug equipment in means termination, and many jobs combine the two. Send an engineer photos of both ends of the cable and a rough idea of distances, and they can usually tell you which before quoting.
Send Scott the details and we'll get a realistic price back to you, usually the same working day.
Tell us about the job. A photo of the cabinet or a rough cable count is plenty to get a price started.