• velvetThunder@lemmy.zip
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    1 year ago

    I was living in a world where I wasn’t aware that it’s a thing to steal cables. Thanks. But aren’t fiber optic more expensive?

    • Catsrules
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      1 year ago

      Generally when I hear people discussing fiber the big costs is actually running the cables and terminating and splicing the ends, the actual cable itself is relatively inexpensive from my understanding.

      But with regard to stealing cable, you really can’t do much with a fiber cable on the secondary market besides using it for fiber, and you also would probably need to re-terminate it that can be very costly. Compared to copper or other type of metal cables that can be sold very easily for scrap metal. That can be melted down and made into something else or just reused as cable.

    • ridethisbike@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Probably, but I don’t think you can easily melt it down and sell the raw materials like you can with metals… Just a hunch

    • Honytawk@lemmy.zip
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      1 year ago

      No, Fiber cables are really cheap. They are basically just glass with some reflective coat.

      It is just that the connectors and more importantly the work of attaching those connectors to the cable that makes them expensive. They need to be welded in a dust-free environment, and require lots of skill to get right.

      • the_seven_sins@feddit.de
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        1 year ago

        Also, copper cables capable of transmitting high data rates aren’t easily manufactured either. Think of shielding, twisted pairs of wires, etc. And they don’t even contain a lot of copper.