Glass is more than half empty for fiber optic line thief

There's a lesson to be learned for the person or persons who stole 300 feet of fiber optic cable from a Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA) construction site in Spokane, Wash. Fiber, while expensive to deploy and somewhat expensive to buy, is worthless glass when it comes to selling it on the black market.

In one of those oddities that make networking so interesting, fiber is invaluable as a transport method for voice, video and data. Between 5,000 and 7,000 North Spokane customers learned that during the several hours that it took Comcast to restore service. Fiber's not worth nearly as much as copper (which Comcast figures the thieves were after) when reselling and melting down. But then again, copper is relatively worthless these days as a network transport medium.

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