Drop Cable
A drop cable is the final length of fibre that connects a customer's premises to the nearest access point in the network.
What is a drop cable?
Drop cables form the last link of the outside plant, running from the FAT to the user. They are laid in small ducts or micro-ducts, or strung overhead from poles. They usually contain one or a few fibres, sometimes with spare fibres for extra capacity. At the premises, a drop cable may end in a fibre termination box, a terminal box, or a splitter or distribution box inside a building.
Example
In a typical aerial set-up, the drop cable runs from the pole-mounted FAT to a terminal box on the outside wall. An indoor cable then runs to an access terminal box inside the home, and a patch cord connects that box to the ONT.