You may want fiber, but rising copper prices continue to make the metal a prime target for thieves, who have started stealing it wherever they can (sometimes with dire consequences). In many cases, thieves have been ripping live telephone wires directly from poles: att=1195333,r bquote More than 1,000 feet of copper cable was stripped from Verizon Northwest poles in the Bald Peak area northwest of Newberg earlier this week, leaving 149 households temporarily without phone service. Thieves working during the night used a vehicle to pull cable loose from two poles, and the tension snapped a third pole off at the base (emphasis added). /bquote Copper is now bringing in more than $3 a pound on the scrap market. In order to reduce related phone and Internet outages, AT&T has started offering rewards for tips leading to the arrest of copper thieves.
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