My old East Coast apartment building is finally getting Verizon Fios.
I’m trying to figure out the bare minimum that Verizon needs to install.
I understand they will bring in a fiber optic cable which it needs to terminate at an Optical Network Terminal (ONT). I’m not exactly sure if I rent that, or if that’s included.
Can I buy my own ONT?
I expect they will try to rent me a gateway, with the ONT and WiFi router in one. I definitely don’t want that, I already have a decent router.
Do they have an ONT with just one fiber connection and one ethernet connection??
What exactly should I ask for to avoid any unnecessary equipment fees?
Disclaimer, don’t have their service, but I’m somewhat familiar with different fiber ISP setups (call me an ISP enthusiast).
Assuming their setup at your place is gpon (it is in most places), technically the minimum they could be willing to provision is an ONU, that you could buy that has an SFP or an SFP+ connector on one end, and an SC fiber connector on laser end, and they could provision it based on a serial you could read to them over the phone.
It’s unlikely they’ll be willing … and more likely they’ll try to upsell you onto some stupid 7 set top boxes over moca thing with gazillion 4k HDR 3mbps tv channels or something else equally horrible and 10 times more complex … because that upsell scam is actually their core business, not providing you with access to information services.
GPON interfaces (either ONT or ONU), are always managed by the ISP because there’s crypto stuff and time slicing/multiplexing on uplink they’ll need to keep in check for the benefit of all users sharing the fiber.
Voice, video and data typically all ride over different ethernet VLANs that sit on top of gpon.
Afaik there’s no cheap devices allowing “raw”/software access to gpon protocols that would allow you to emulate verizons hardware using your own gear.