For several reasons, Verizon had traditionally struggled with installing FiOS in apartment complexes and MDUs (multiple dwelling units) -- where a fifth of their customers live. Given that traditional fiber can't be bent without signal degradation, installs in and around apartment buildings and condos were proving somewhat annoying. Verizon, who just finished signing franchise agreements along the east coast including NYC, DC and Philly, was helped greatly by a recent development at Corning: bendable fiber.

Dubbed Clearcurve, Corning's solution infuses the cladding that surrounds the fiber's narrow core with nanostructures. Those nanostructures act as light guardrails creating a 25 trillion bits per second cable that can be wound into tight loops without degrading connectivity (Corning's demo video is fairly cool). In addition to the new, bendable fiber, Verizon says they're using much small ONT (optical networking terminals) more suited to cramped spaces.

Developed by Alcatel Lucent and Motorola, Verizon says the new, smaller hardware is now being deployed during FiOS installations in parts of the New York, Southern California and Tampa Bay markets. Vincent O'Byrne, Verizon's technology director at Verizon's product and technology development labs in Massachusetts, says Verizon had the units custom designed to their specifications (as we noted in '07).

"By running fiber from the point of entry to the new, smaller ONTs, installers can make fewer runs of coaxial and computer cables," says O'Byrne. "As a result, the whole installation experience will be cleaner and simpler for the customers." Combined with bendable fiber, that means the installs should be faster too. Combined with MDU density that should provide a speedy subscriber boost, something that should please investors who've ceaselessly whined about FiOS's slow return on the company's $23 billion investment.

According to Verizon, the Alcatel-Lucent I-21 1M-K indoor ONT measures just 1-1/4 inches high, 8-1/2 inches wide and 5-1/2 inches deep. The Motorola ONT 1000 GTI indoor ONT is only slightly larger. Once you've moved past the fairly annoying fake-news PR involved in this video, the company offers a few glimpses of the new devices being installed. From our understanding, both units feature 2 POTS (plain old telephone service) ports, one Ethernet port, 1 MoCA port (coax networking) and 1 RF video port.

If any FiOS customers have experience with the new, itsy-bitsy hardware, please drop your thoughts (and pics) in our comment section below.