[DannyBee]

You don't need them unless you are running a mile or two of fiber - mechanical fast connectors (IE no polish, etc) are less than 0.3db loss at this point.

Fusion splicing will still be 0.01db or better, but you will be well within the power budget of any transceiver you find with mechanical connectors, if we are talking home networking - even a 2km 10gb transceiver that is 20 bucks has a 6db power budget.

Heck, the 10km are cheaper than 2km at this point - 17bucks on amazon, power budget of 16db.

[sponaugle]

This is VERY true - especially for home use. You could have many db of loss and still have a perfectly functional 100g network.