The residual value of its assets switches, copper wiring, and other equipment is falling fast.

FORBES: Telegram for the FCC: Time to Retire the Telephone Network

Fiber-optic cable can carry many times as much data as traditional copper wiring.

NPR: Broadening the Reach of Broadband

Optical technologies have revolutionized long-distance communications, replacing low-capacity copper wiring that carries electrical signals with combinations of lasers and fiber-optic cabling that send information over many high-speed channels.

WSJ: IBM Claims Breakthrough in Laser-Based Chips

To assemble these little critters, Ibiden has developed its own plastic resins and a new process for building up layers of plastic that contain intricate patterns of copper wiring (see diagram).

FORBES: It's all in the packaging

It will be rolling out fibre to the cabinet technology (FTTC) - which provides a fibre connection as far as the familiar green boxes on the corner of streets but still relies on copper wiring for the so-called last mile between the cabinet and the home.

BBC: Sheffield in broadband fast lane

One in Escondido had lost copper plumbing and wiring to scavengers.

FORBES: Moving In

Failure to use the latest three-dimensional modelling software meant nobody anticipated the effect of using lightweight aluminium wiring rather than copper, which is to make bends in the wiring looms bulkier.

ECONOMIST: Airbus and EADS

The U.S. consumes one-fifth of global copper production, primarily in wiring and plumbing.

FORBES: Forget Gold, Buy Copper

Until a couple of years ago, America was the world's biggest consumer of copper, used in electrical wiring and the like.

ECONOMIST: The magnetism of metals