A practical, engineering-focused guide to planning and installing underground fiber optic cables with the right cable structure, trench design and protection level for long-life, low-risk networks. It forms a critical backbone for modern communication networks across both urban and rural environments. (FOA) was founded in 1995 to help develop the workforce to build the fiber optic networks to support a rapid expansion in communications and the Internet. The process involves using specialized machines to install the fiber optic cables into underground pipes, which can. How to use limited underground pipeline resources to lay new optical cables is one of the backbone network construction problems faced by network operators and contractors today.