If my Verizon Fios internet and tv are fiber optic, then why do the STB and router both need coaxial connections too?
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Because your fiber is either to the street or to your cable block (where the cable enters your house). I believe FiOS is to the door. The wiring inside your house is coax.
FiOS is a Passive Optical Network (PON) that was deployed with what is called an RF (radio frequency) overlay. The voice and data for your internet connection is transported downstream on one wavelength of light (1490 nm) and upstream on a completely different wavelength of light (1310 nm). For video, FiOS uses a third wavelength (1550 nm) to send video downstream. The optical network terminal (ONT) then outputs the RF signal on to coax which connects to a set top box in your home. That set top box is using the MOCA protocol which is plain old cable TV service. This design is more costly and complex than what more recent PON deployments do which is to send IP video (not RF) to your ONT which outputs the video signal as Ethernet.
#ELI5
Fiber only comes TO your house. From the junction box outside the house (or just inside), it is converted from Fiber to a Coaxial signal.
Why?
(1) Most houses have been wired for coax for decades. That is, the wiring is ALREADY THERE. It’s more efficient to just use the wiring that’s already there.
(2) Coax is much cheaper than fiber. Fiber is really a tube of special glass. The optical signal doesn’t go straight through the tube, no, it really BOUNCES off the inside walls of the tube. This means you can’t really bend it too much. All in all, fiber is more expensive to manufacture than coax. So why not run the cheaper kind of thing throughout your house?
(3) All the tools and hardware to split cables, connect cables, extend cables, and repair cables is also much cheaper in coax form.
(4) Because of all this, DEVICES also have no push to convert to fiber. Why make a fiber AND a coax version of your set top box, when all the above reasons for coax exist?
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