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.
Most optical fiber is 125um of glass with 250um coating. The coating and the jacketing that make up the cable (mostly non-recyclable plastic) are the real problem.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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
Fiber optic cables are very much not recyclable, at least with the current recycling technologies.
i mean its glass, could just melt it down
Sure, but the glass core is only 8–9 µm wide, it’s a minuscule amount of glass compared to copper cables so it’s not really worth it to melt it down.
Most optical fiber is 125um of glass with 250um coating. The coating and the jacketing that make up the cable (mostly non-recyclable plastic) are the real problem.
I don’t know of any fiber that the core is 125 microns. Can you link to one? Neither Single Mode nor Multi Mode fiber is that large.
It’s hyper complex glass
Some are complex, most aren’t I’d say.
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.
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.