Once the fiber 0ptic cable runs are in, they are ready to be terminated. Fiber optic connectors offer a mechanical means to terminate optical fibers to other fibers and to active devices, there by connecting O/E Transducers, receivers and cables into working links. Fiber Optic Connectors are terminated onto the fiber optic cable via splicing or connectorizing. To connectorize, a connector is attached to the end of a raw fiber. Connectors can be plugged in and out of patch panels, or station outlets. In splicing, two bare fibers are joined together with a mechanical or fusion splice. A splice is a permanent joining method, used either to connect two cable runs together to make the run longer, or to add a pigtail connector onto the cable. A pigtail is a short piece of cable with a fiber optic connector factory-attached to one end. Because of the great potential for misalignment, most singlemode terminations are factory-made onto pigtails.A general rule of thumb is that singlemode fibers are spliced, and multimode fibers are connectorized. In most simple mode and multimode applications, cable will be directly terminated with a fiber optic connector and we are the specialised in that.

There are two types of splicing: fusion and mechanical. Fusion splicing is the joining and fusing of two fibers by placing them between two electrodes, and discharging an electric arc over the fibers. This splice Technique is non-reflective. In mechanical splicing, the optical glass fibers are glued or mechanically gripped in place but not fused(melted) together.Singlemode plugs are usually spliced to the fiber cable.  When terminating, a great deal of care must  be taken to align and center the core of the fiber. To get the optimum alignment, usually the fiber is sized to the outside diameter (O.D.) of the cladding (usually 125 +/- 1 micron), its core(9 +/- 1 micron), and the inside diameter (I.D.) of the connector ferrule (the component of a fiber optic connection that holds a fiber in place and aids in its alignment). To avoid the great potential for misalignment, most singlemode terminations are factory-made onto pigtails and then spliced via splice trays to the cable. In addition, low reflection polishes (such as PC, SPC and APC) must be performed in controlled manufacturing environments to maintain low loss and reflection levels.

The connectorizing process may vary with connector style and manufacturer, but generally all follow the same basic procedure. Through the years, many techniques have been developed to improve on both the performance and the installation time to install fiber optic connectors. Each technique has its own advantages and disadvantages for users. Also, the installed cost is different for each one, depending on the component cost and level of skill required. The most common techniques are listed below.