Sticklers™ Cleaners Save Money

The objective should not be to minimize the cost of the cleaning supplies; the goal should be to maximize the performance of the network and avoid expensive repair calls. One major telephone company reports the fully-loaded cost of an average FTTx repair call is just under $200. Avoiding field repairs is very profitable strategy.

Sticklers™ field research suggests that at least 1/3^rd of all jumpers, right out of the bag, are sufficiently contaminated that significant network degradation will result. The installation of 100 fiber-to-the-home (FTTh) connections will require roughly 33 repairs if those connectors are not properly cleaned. Since each uncleaned connection has a 33% chance of requiring a return visit, the expected-value of the repair cost per termination is $66.

Let's take a look at a typical FTTh install. To make the system work, there's a fiber drop coming into side of the house. The technician will splice a pigtail on to the fiber drop (two cleanings), clean the connector on the pigtail, and clean the port on the converter box on the side of the house. The total is four cleanings.

Cost of cleaning the pigtail termination (two fibers being spliced into one):

• 2 Benchtop CleanWipes™                          17.8 cents
• 2 drops of Cleaning Fluid will cost about    7.5 cents

Cost of cleaning the pigtail end-face:

• 1 Benchtop CleanWipe™                           8.9 cents
• 1 drop of Sticklers™ Cleaning Fluid          3.8 cents

Cost of cleaning the port:

• 1.25 cleaning sticks                                   74.3 cents
• 1.25 drops of Cleaning Fluid                       4.8 cents

Total cost of Sticklers™ cleaning Supplies $1.171

• Labor, $50/hour fully loaded, assume 2 minutes to do all cleaning $1.67 per install

The total Cost-to-Clean an FTTh Install is about $2.84

We're going to install the system into 100 homes, so the total cost to clean all one hundred installations is $284. 

MicroCare's research suggests that, unless special care is taken in cleaning, 33 of those installations will have problems due to dirty splices or connectors.

The cost of 33 repair calls is around $6,600.  Properly cleaning those splices, jumpers and ports will save the company about $6,316.

Another way to think of it: for the cost of a single fiber optic repair visit to somebody's home, you could properly clean and install the fiber running into 23 homes.