5:00 PM -- Powering FTTP installations is still a tricky business. In a typical case, technicians will drill a hole through the customer's outside garage wall so they can install a power box at the nearest electrical outlet and run a cable to the outside.

Regarding the FTTP power options, analysts Kermit Ross and John Celentano frequently joke that FTTx, where the "x" is a variable, really stands for "fiber to the extension cord."

One more point: It seems the only thing traveling down the fiber to the customer's home is data, since Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) is, in most cases, just reusing the copper pair going to the customer's house for POTS. Here's a photo showing the customer's phone lines being rerouted from the old NID to the new ONT.

That's not to say Verizon's Fios service is a bad deal. It's not. It costs $52 (after taxes) for a 3-Mbit/s cable connection in my neighborhood. Fios starts at $39.95 (before taxes) for a 5-Mbit/s hookup.

— Phil Harvey, News Editor, Light Reading