said by ajschmitt :

One thing you are missing - VZ runs a a multiple fiber bundle (like 40) to the splitter cabinet. Even though one of those fibers are being used, nothing precludes removing the splitter and then wiring up the home runs 1:1. At the very least, it would be easy to further partition the network to reduce the number of users per fiber.

And if none of this works, there is always WDM-PON, though I think it is a technology in search of an application.

said by ronpin :

Each of those 40 fibers from the Verizon CO to the splitter pedestal are terminated in optical OLT ports in the CO that mux up to 32 users each. So those 40 strands will serve up to (40x32) 1280 homes -- near the pedestal.

said by ronpin :

WDM-PON is actually the term being used to describe the current 3 laser BPON system. "DWDM" (Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing) is "in search of an application" -- in the Last Mile. The ITU "color grid" defines 96 wavelengths in the 1500nm "C" band for DWDM . Really, only 32 wavelengths are needed to give each current FiOS user a unique "virtual fiber". I did err earlier (above) when I cited uDWDM as the method needed to do that (ultra-DWDM defines 1024 lambdas with much tighter spacing).