On Wednesday, 21 April 2021 at 08:07:26 UTC+1, Andy Burns wrote:
The Natural Philosopher wrote:
Roger Hayter wrote:

And don't the fibre cables include a steel rope to take the tension?

yes. and a copper pair, too.
Yes, drop wires that they've already installed contain a copper pair,
but will they continue with that now they're going fibre-only and using
voip? I'd have thought they'd want to remove all temptation for the
thieves.

I have seen two different types of drop cable being installed recently. One has
a copper pair alongside the fibre cable. The main strength element appears
to be kevlar or something similar. The other drop cable has nothing metallic.
My sister in law has the type with a copper pair and was recently told by BT
that she would be moved to VoIP and the copper service discontinued. This
is a rural location with long unreliable copper lines.

I don't know how the multi-fibre cables used for long overhead runs are
strengthened, but whatever it is works well at holding up fallen trees.

John