said by kevinds:I've seen fiber cables marked as fiber, 'contains no copper'... To try and prevent thieves from cutting it...
You have to have some good fiber skills, to put new ends on fiber cables, short lengths of cut fiber are worthless
Those assume the thief reads the cable. Given it normally happens in the dark, well, they aren't going to see it. Just chop it and run.
The thieves who steal copper by ripping it off lines aren't the smartest people in the world. The first time they'll know about it is when the recycler points out that it's worthless plastic and glass.
The smarter ones would cut it, see no copper and leave. Still have a cut cable in the end, though.
And no, the fiber is not taken because it was fiber. It was taken (or just cut and left) because the thief thought it contained copper. They're not stealing it for the fiber, period. Fiber is cheap and used cut up fiber is pretty much worthless as there's no demand - it's so cheap people just buy brand new rolls where they can verify it works, rather than try to fix up a "pre owned" length that might be beat up in the middle and erratic.