Overhead Wiring Chaos

[Patong2]

Have seen and been amused by the chaos of overhead wiring around Phuket.

Multiple wires all in a tangled birds nest and I wonder how the poor technician could ever work out which wire to work on.

Love the sparking in wet weather and make sure I keep clear.

 

But what puzzles me is why unused wires are not removed?

Do they not have a copper content now?

If they do, how come they aren't stolen and melted down for scrap as happens in other countries

[KhunBENQ]

3 hours ago, Patong2 said:

Do they not have a copper content now?

Unlikely much copper.

Mostly fiberglass cable enforced with steel wire(s) and plastic coating.

Not sure how easy it is to make money from them.

3 hours ago, Patong2 said:

But what puzzles me is why unused wires are not removed?

Good question. Too lazy, no responsible party, not paying off (it's mostly private companies)?

In parts of cities there have been some cleanup campaigns over the years.

 

And of course is by no way Phuket specific.

 

Edited August 31, 2022 by KhunBENQ

[rwill]

mai pen rai

[AsianAtHeart]

4 hours ago, Patong2 said:

But what puzzles me is why unused wires are not removed?

Do they not have a copper content now?

Judging from what I have personally witnessed, it is less labor-intensive for them to simply install a new fiber-optic line than to try to trace the old one.  They'll cut the old one out of the house into which it had been installed, and replace the in-home cable with a new line, freshly added to the cable bundle on the poles outside.

 

No, not much copper, and apparently the fiber is cheap enough that they have no incentive to try to trace the old lines.  Maybe they assume the old lines will be damaged in a high enough percentage of cases to make it not worth the effort anyhow.  But they certainly put no effort into removing unused lines from the public utility poles.

 

It basically boils down to lack of organization or planning; and we might add technical expertise and/or equipment to the list where such equipment could have assisted in checking the lines.

[khunPer]

6 hours ago, Patong2 said:

But what puzzles me is why unused wires are not removed?

Do they not have a copper content now?

How do you know what's in use and not, various private companies own those wires that are not power. Easier just to leave them and drag a new line...

 

[KhunBENQ]

If they really want they can clean up unused lines.

Watched this myself in Pattaya.

Piles of cut down fiber cables on the street and a huge pile at some shophouse (maybe a scrap business).

[KhunBENQ]

Pictures from August 2020 in Pattaya.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 31, 2022 by KhunBENQ

[foreverlomsak]

7 hours ago, Patong2 said:

Multiple wires all in a tangled birds nest and I wonder how the poor technician could ever work out which wire to work on.

he doesn't he just runs in a new wire is easier

[sammieuk1]

No load test no stay wires when a pickup crashes into a pole the twang can bring poles down far from the crash as I have seen many years ago ????

[Phuket Pete]

A clear sign of a third world country ! Thailand will always look scruffy, dirty and poor whilst this mess exists and it will never attract or keep the 'quality tourists' it so desires.

[PETERTHEEATER]

Luckily, when the predicted great flood comes it will thoroughly clean the cables buried underground thus far which should result in faster broadband........????

[OneMoreFarang]

10 hours ago, Patong2 said:

But what puzzles me is why unused wires are not removed?

I have no answer.

 

But I have a story from long time ago from refineries.

It seems often they have unused pipes. But nobody if anybody needs a new pipe then they add a new pipe and don't use one of those unused pipes. Why? Because they are not 100% sure if those apparently unused pipes are really unused. And to avoid any problems they don't touch those pipes.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if the same principle is not used with electrical wires.

 

[Thingamabob]

Laziness, which holds Thailand back more than any other factor.

[brianthainess]

19 hours ago, Patong2 said:

Do they not have a copper content now?

Aluminium is normally used never copper.

[brianthainess]

15 hours ago, AsianAtHeart said:

No, not much copper, and apparently the fiber is cheap enough t

Fibre is for Internet, ALUMINIUM is for power. copper is never used by the power companies and fibre is not for Power.

[AsianAtHeart]

1 minute ago, brianthainess said:

Fibre is for Internet, ALUMINIUM is for power. copper is never used by the power companies and fibre is not for Power.

Nobody said the fibre was for power.  We're not talking about power lines here.  The tangles of cables on the power poles are for communications, not power--all low-voltage (or no voltage in the case of fibre): telephone, cable company, and internet.  The high-voltage power lines stay at the top of the poles, and are not usually a part of the tangles.

[DrDave]

A lot of this mass of cable pre-dates fiber internet - it's been like this for a couple of decades. I believe a considerable amount is twisted pair copper, but as previously mentioned it's probably too difficult to determine which wires are in use and which aren't, so they're just left hanging there.

[beechbum]

13 hours ago, OneMoreFarang said:

I have no answer.

 

But I have a story from long time ago from refineries.

It seems often they have unused pipes. But nobody if anybody needs a new pipe then they add a new pipe and don't use one of those unused pipes. Why? Because they are not 100% sure if those apparently unused pipes are really unused. And to avoid any problems they don't touch those pipes.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if the same principle is not used with electrical wires.

 

Sounds like you've been on the pipe....

[RocketDog]

On 8/31/2022 at 4:24 PM, AsianAtHeart said:

It basically boils down to lack of organization or planning; and we might add technical expertise and/or equipment

There you have the hard kernel of many of the Kingdom's problems.

Cultural aversion to forethought in any activity or endeavor : you called it planning.

Like the road carnage, this will never change because there is zero will among the population to do so.

 

Thailand has doomed itself to third world status forever.