Copper Price Surge and Rampant Cable Theft: How All-Optical Renovation of Old Parks Cuts Annual Emergency Repair Costs

Over the past year, copper prices have remained at historic highs. Driven by supply disruptions at major mines, copper prices rose by more than 40% in 2025 and have stayed near peak levels this year. Higher copper prices boost resale profits for scrap cables, and organised criminal gangs have targeted communication and power lines.

The statistics are striking. Canadian telecom giant Bell reported that copper cable theft incidents on its network have surged more than sixfold since 2022. As of 2026, 918 cases have occurred, roughly five per day, costing the company “millions of dollars annually”. A single incident can disrupt services for tens of thousands of customers.

Since July this year, seven cable theft cases have been recorded in the Neipu Township area of Pingtung County. Farms, orchards and construction sites have all been targeted. Seven victims suffered combined losses of approximately 900,000 RMB. Reports show thieves earn over 4,000 RMB by reselling just 15 metres of stolen cable, yet the theft halts production lines, causing direct and indirect economic losses exceeding 100,000 RMB.

For legacy industrial parks still running traditional copper networks, this creates a harsh reality: copper cables strung between buildings are no longer merely communications infrastructure — they are exposed, monetisable assets. Thieves cut a cable segment for a few hundred yuan in resale value, while the park faces business outages, potential data loss and emergency repairs lasting hours or even days.

II. Emergency Repair Costs Are Far More Than Replacing a Cable Segment

Many facility managers assume copper theft losses only cover the cable material itself. The true impact is much broader.

1. Direct emergency repair costs: Every copper cable failure requires on-site dispatch. Industry estimates place a single service call at $150–500, covering labour, vehicles and fuel. If conduit re-routing is required, costs double. For large parks with multiple buildings, one repair job may require several technicians and multiple working days.
2. Business interruption losses: Copper theft often happens overnight or on weekends, and outages are discovered only after services go down. For parks reliant on network operations — whether ERP/OA systems in office zones or MES and industrial control equipment in production zones — every outage translates to tangible financial losses.
3. Recurring victimisation costs (the most easily overlooked): If stolen copper cables are replaced with new copper, the park simply reinstalls bait for thieves. Once thieves know the route, the same line may be re-targeted within months. Some parks report three thefts on the same route within a single year, each requiring new construction and cabling.
4. Continuous drain on O&M manpower: Traditional copper networks already have higher failure rates than fibre, compounded by theft risk. IT teams spend massive effort troubleshooting and coordinating repairs. For small and medium parks without dedicated network administrators, integrators are repeatedly called back to site, driving cumulative maintenance expenses.

III. The Logic of All-Optical Renovation: Remove Stealable Assets at the Physical Layer

The fundamental solution to recurring copper theft repair costs is not increased patrols or additional cameras. These measures only raise thieves’ risks without eliminating their profit motive. The real fix is to retire copper cables from the park network.

Optical fibre is mainly composed of silica and contains no copper. If a fibre cable is cut, thieves only obtain worthless glass filaments with almost no resale value. When copper disappears from the park network, theft loses its economic incentive. This is not just “securing cables against thieves”; it removes the motive for theft entirely.

AINOPOL’s enterprise park all-optical network solution follows exactly this logic. Built on a PON passive optical network foundation, it replaces copper cables with fibre extending from the core machine room to offices, production zones, warehouses and security camera points. Fibre delivers long transmission distances, massive bandwidth and immunity to electromagnetic interference. A single fibre supports up to 10 Gbps, and one-time deployment can accommodate bandwidth evolution for 20 to 30 years.

After renovation, the network no longer contains assets worth stealing. The largest cost component of emergency repairs — copper materials and construction labour — is permanently eliminated from the cost structure.

IV. Savings Are Multi-Dimensional, Not Only Reduced Repair Work

• Material savings: Traditional parks deploy separate cabling for office network, telephony, surveillance and access control, requiring four separate construction teams. The all-optical network achieves four-network convergence. One fibre infrastructure carries office, security, voice and IoT services, cutting cabling investment by roughly 80% compared with legacy copper systems.
• Space and hardware savings: Copper is limited to 100-metre transmission distances. Tall buildings require intermediate switch repeaters, filling weak-current rooms with power-hungry active devices. The passive PON architecture eliminates aggregation-layer switches. Fibre runs directly to terminals, weak-current rooms can be downsized or removed. Fewer devices mean lower power consumption and fewer failure points.
• O&M manpower savings: AINOPOL EAAS cloud O&M platform centrally manages all OLT and ONU devices across the park. Network topology, device status and alarms are displayed on a visual dashboard. Fibre links contain no electronic components and avoid oxidation or loose connectors common to copper. Routine inspection workload drops sharply. Parks without dedicated IT staff no longer need extra manpower for frequent network repairs.
• Compliance cost savings: AINOPOL’s integrated communication-security architecture delivers security capabilities alongside the all-optical foundation. Real-name authentication, internet behaviour auditing, 180-day log retention, IPS intrusion prevention and other features are embedded in gateways. Parks complete optical transformation and compliance deployment in one construction phase, without separate procurement of security appliances or independent logging systems. Communications build-out and security compliance are finished together, cutting hardware budget plus coordination and debugging time costs.

For IT managers, all-optical renovation transforms the network from a high-failure asset into low-maintenance infrastructure. Emergency tickets decline, and O&M teams shift from fire-fighting to network development.

For business decision-makers, hidden losses from copper theft — service disruption, data risks and reputational damage — are systematically eliminated under the all-optical architecture. Reduced repair expenses are only visible book savings; the greater value lies in guaranteed business continuity.

For system integrators, legacy parks suffering frequent copper theft are ideal opportunities to pitch all-optical upgrades. AINOPOL supports phased renovation: parks can deploy OLT in the core machine room first, gradually switching floors from copper to fibre while keeping old and new networks running in parallel without disrupting daily business. Integrators can evolve from emergency repair vendors to full network upgrade solution providers, shifting project value from one-off repairs to long-term managed services.

FAQ

Q: Where are all-optical network repair costs lower than copper?
A: Copper repairs involve cable materials, conduit routing and connector termination, costing hundreds of US dollars per service call. Fibre repairs mainly require fusion splicing and link replacement with simpler workflows. Since fibre contains no stealable metal, there is no repeated loss from “repair only to be stolen again”.

Q: What does integrated communication-security mean in optical renovation?
A: Integrated communication-security embeds security functions directly into the all-optical network gateway. While building the fibre infrastructure, the park obtains native capabilities including real-name authentication, 180-day log retention, IPS intrusion prevention, AV antivirus and traffic control. There is no need to deploy standalone security devices after network construction.

Q: What service life can all-optical networks achieve?
A: Fibre far outlasts copper physically. Industry experience shows fibre can remain in service for 30 years without cable replacement. Bandwidth upgrades are achieved by swapping end-side devices rather than re-cabling. Copper is constrained by bandwidth limits and ageing, often requiring large-scale replacement within just a few years.

Q: Which parks fit this solution?
A: Legacy enterprise parks, industrial parks and chain campuses still using copper networks, suffering cable theft or frequent breakdowns. It is especially suitable for sites with cluttered weak-current rooms, limited O&M staff and high requirements for network reliability.