Whether it's from misalignment, dust contamination, environmental stress, or poor splice protection, these problems can quickly escalate if not addressed. Fiber splices are typically employed for one of four reasons: to repair a damaged cable, extend the length of a cable, join two different cable types, or attach a pigtail. We'll talk about fiber pigtails later on in the article How well a fiber splice performs depends on many variables. These. A single imperfect splice can disrupt connectivity for businesses, schools, and homes, causing slow speeds, intermittent outages, and costly downtime. A very common problem is that a connector is not fully engaged - often hard to notice in a crowded patch panel.