I have just came to know that TM is now replacing direct copper lines to phone exchanges where there is high occurrence of cables being stolen.

For a thin strand of fiber about the width of a human hair it promises speeds which are multiples of what copper can offer.Bet still, no cable thief will have an eye at it because it has almost no resale value.

The only problem is why TM is taking such a long time to replace them in my area.

using fiber to replace copper lines? mana boleh?

cuz if they want to convert copper lines to fiber optic lines, they'd have to do it everywhere else, or it'll be a waste of money and resources

some new buildings have it but in the end the speeds are still more or less the same as normal broadband due to everywhere else using the normal lines.

This post has been edited by VinluV: Jan 16 2009, 12:50 AM

shall we encourage more copper line thieves so we can get fiber earlier then?

No you're all getting the wrong picture.

You do not need to replace the copper cables which runs right into your house(internal wiring).

They are replacing those big bundles of copper pair which runs inside those aerial cabling on the phone poles with just a single thin pair of drop fiber to the switch box situated along the road outside your house.



no comments on that but if your phone switch box outside your house gets vandalized or cables got stolen overnight.Very likely the next round of replacement will be made with fiber optic cables.

This post has been edited by iipohbee: Jan 16 2009, 12:58 AM

I do see alot of DSLAM in my area..

in my taman i spotted 3 DSLAM which has not label yet.

This doesn't make sense to me.

If my building is connected with fibre, what does it matter how the building next door is connected? It's not like the lines are all daisy-chained.

I do think that if we have more fiber line percentage at the route to your house, line quality could be improved(as fiber line can go longer distance with less quality loss)! My line quality is completely horrible, noise is reaching the rooftop and SNR Margin is going rock bottom. Need to complain to them, I hope they understand this technical jargon.

Sry hijack thread a bit, pls tell me if they understand this (even if it doesn't make a difference, as I'm going to ask them nonetheless)

This post has been edited by blindbox: Jan 16 2009, 10:50 AM

Since they won't moved unless pushed (and I mean pushed like $*%#) then yeah, I'll stole it and make them change my line to fiber. FFS, its been so long and yet nothing has changed. Its not like I live in some jungle or something jeez

if they sell proper channel underground, there always resale value for 3rd world.

notice TM lately building new box possible*R/DSLAM, look like they trying to push higher speed/getting more user. recently they lay cable

2 bird with 1 stone

So, you want to get fiber to your home?

When was your housing area developed?

There's almost no resale value for fiber optic cables.

Each fiber strand is just as thin as your pencil lead.Just a slight force could fracture it without proper handling/insulation.
Unlike metallic cables where you can sell it to the junk shop for smelting, what do you plan to do with this these thin and fine strands of silica?

A TM technician(not from my area) once told me they got so fed up of replacing stolen cables after a few times until they finally decided to replace them with a single drop fiber.

Miraculously, after the replacement there were no more cable thief case after that.

pls correct me if i'm wrong,

there always resale value for (underground/black market) as long the cable are good condition & great length.

new area using fiber to the street..then from then using msan/dlc to provide phone service...if using dlc..must locate rdslam..but from MPOC/DLC [cabinet] to the home still copper.

still remember staff from zte china say..in china also they have lots of copper cable being stolen....[they even have alarm direct connect to the authority once the cable is being cut]but yet its being stolen too....

when they lay new fiber ..they had to make a notice board juz to say ."This is A Fiber Cable." to tell the possible thief from cutting the fiber..lol

This post has been edited by amirsubhi: Jan 16 2009, 06:02 PM

Great idea!!! Maybe you can start at your area first.

Out of curiosity, how many times more expensive is fibre vs copper?

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Added on January 16, 2009, 8:22 pm... and after stealing the copper cable, maybe the thief can put up a sign to say "Please Replace with Fibre or else I will steal it again".

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Added on January 16, 2009, 8:25 pmI think if you were stealing the cable, you probably won't have much time to handle it carefully because the police may pass you anytime and off you go to have free food and lodging at the expense of the government. Might not be a bad idea in these times of economic downturn.


This post has been edited by Xybirium: Jan 16 2009, 08:25 PM

Sure, if you "find" a spool of fibre in the back lot behind the TM building, you could sell that.

But if you try to pull already-laid fibre out of the ground in the middle of the night without expensive equipment, you will ruin it and it will be worth nothing.

With copper, on the other hand, it doesn't matter if you damage or break it. Just melt it down and sell it by the kilo.

The material used in fiber optic cables are refined silica which is basically good quality glass. How much of glass could you get out of let's say 10M of fiber cable?

I would suggest the person who intends to steal fiber cables better to collect drink or ketchup bottles to make a living.

does anyone know how much a copper cable compared to fiber of the same length costs?

Ready for 4 Mbps lah bro hehehe

People start to steal fiber to copper converter.