On cable theft, the price of copper and laying fibre

Jokester · 25 Sep 2011 at 15:22

The cost of fibre is much the same as the cost of copper cable, so BT will still have to pay for the labour costs to do it.

rpstewart · 25 Sep 2011 at 15:27

Plus there's the cost of the new kit at either end of the fibre.

ljt · 25 Sep 2011 at 15:56

Plus we still use the copper to the cabinets for voice phone lines, the fibre is used in tandem, not in place of the copper (At the moment that is)

Azuse05 · 25 Sep 2011 at 16:55

Actually laying fibre is cheaper than BT originally predicted. Or rather, the price of copper they dig up is worth more than they originally predicted, hence they could increase the speed of fibre roll out.

Simple fact is it's a massive amount of labour, years of work, anyone thinking otherwise is only fooling themselves.

The registers quality journalism, like most papers, is rather selective when it comes to printing facts. Out of context quotes are the order of the day.

bledd · 25 Sep 2011 at 18:19

Dig it up at both ends, tie a double granny knot between the copper cable and some fibre optics, yank the copper cable out and voila, the fibre will be in it's place

amiright?

Sin_Chase · 25 Sep 2011 at 18:31

While it seems a little bit rose tinted in outlook there is somewhat of a an interesting thought to come out of it - It may not be profitable, but surely it costs less overall to do it while metal prices are at a high?

Slade2 · 25 Sep 2011 at 19:04

while a cool idea in my head I think it is not really practical to impliment, like someone above said copper is still needed for phone lines. The bigest problem BT have was that they got privatised and didnt invest in this country until now when I believe its kinda getting to late. The uk is now like 20th on the list of average broadband speed by country. I can only see the cost of copper increasing as well with China currently comsuming about 40% of the copper that is mined and the amount we mine declining the cost can only increase.

Engy Benjie · 28 Sep 2011 at 10:25

This is the price of having a nationwide phone system before many countries and then privatising it. So as other countries started building up their communication infrastructure they just layed fibre from the start, while tight profit driven companies waited as long as possible before upgrading our ever outdated PSTN system. now they have 100mb internet connections and i'm lucky if i get 500kb/s at my new house.

monkeyspank · 28 Sep 2011 at 10:29

Jokester said:
The cost of fibre is much the same as the cost of copper cable, so BT will still have to pay for the labour costs to do it.

It's the cost of the equipment at each end of the fibre that's expensive.
Fibre cable is really cheap.

jaybee · 28 Sep 2011 at 10:40

I keep seeing talk of metal being so high. What's the deal with metal scrap dealers then...you literally just role up to one and hand them any sort of metals from your loft/garage/shed clearout and they pay you? Is it really worth it? I mean the BT copper cable under the ground is surely quite high quality and large diameter? I would assume if I traded in some copper speaker cable having spent hours stripping it, it would be worth a pittance? Also do they take things like say a buggy with all the rubber and material left on? Or would they only take pure metal bits so needs to be broken down?

Just never experienced metal dealer stuff and not sure how they work.

lewism · 28 Sep 2011 at 12:32

jaybee said:
I keep seeing talk of metal being so high. What's the deal with metal scrap dealers then...you literally just role up to one and hand them any sort of metals from your loft/garage/shed clearout and they pay you? Is it really worth it? I mean the BT copper cable under the ground is surely quite high quality and large diameter? I would assume if I traded in some copper speaker cable having spent hours stripping it, it would be worth a pittance? Also do they take things like say a buggy with all the rubber and material left on? Or would they only take pure metal bits so needs to be broken down?

Just never experienced metal dealer stuff and not sure how they work.

it gets smelted and all the crap either burns or is taken off so you're left with nice shiney copper.

jaybee · 28 Sep 2011 at 15:03

So I can turn up with anything and everything that has some metal inside it? Give me an example...what would I get if I took along say 3kg worth of old computer/audio cables assuming they were copper. Would they have to be pre stripped?

lewism · 28 Sep 2011 at 15:11

jaybee said:
So I can turn up with anything and everything that has some metal inside it? Give me an example...what would I get if I took along say 3kg worth of old computer/audio cables assuming they were copper. Would they have to be pre stripped?

Prestripped gets you more because it's easier to get rid of. However takes more time to do. Every scrappy is different, depends who you know and where you go.

Al Vallario · 28 Sep 2011 at 15:40