An optical fiber that concurrently satisfies G.657 and G.652 standards comprises a core region and a cladding region configured to support and guide the propagation of light in a fundamental transverse mode, the cladding region including (i) an outer cladding region having a refractive index nout less than the refractive index n1 of the core region, (ii) an inner cladding region have a refractive index n2 less than nout, (iii) a pedestal (or ring) region having a refractive index n4 approximately equal to nout, (iv) an inner trench region disposed between the inner cladding region and the pedestal region, the inner trench region having a refractive index n3 much less than that of the pedestal region, and (iv) an outer trench region disposed between the pedestal region and the outer cladding region, the outer trench region having a refractive index n5 less than that of the pedestal region and relatively close to that of the outer cladding region. In order to suppress unwanted HOMs the pedestal region is configured to resonantly couple at least one unwanted transverse mode of the core region (other than the fundamental mode) to at least one transverse mode of the pedestal region. In a preferred embodiment r2/r1˜2.2-3.5, where r1 is the radius of the core region and r2 is the outer radius of the inner cladding region. Also described is a modular method of making the above-described optical fiber of silica glass, which obviates the need to use expensive forms of conventional, low-deposition-rate vapor deposition.