What material is used to make telephone pole wires?

Question

Ok, so my friend and I have a science project to do about the new forms of technology and their pros and cons to the environement. My question for you guys is:

What material are the telephones WIRES made of because I need to know how they effect the environement.

Answer 1

Some are fiber optics

Supplemental Info:

"Optical fiber can be used as a medium for telecommunication and networking because it is flexible and can be bundled as cables. It is especially advantageous for long-distance communications, because light propagates through the fiber with little attenuation compared to electrical cables. This allows long distances to be spanned with few repeaters. Additionally, the light signals propagating in the fiber can be modulated at rates as high as 40 Gb/s [3], and each fiber can carry many independent channels, each by a different wavelength of light (wavelength-division multiplexing). Over short distances, such as networking within a building, fiber saves space in cable ducts because a single fiber can carry much more data than a single electrical cable. Fiber is also immune to electrical interference, which prevents cross-talk between signals in different cables and pickup of environmental noise. Also, wiretapping is more difficult compared to electrical connections, and there are concentric dual core fibers that are said to be tap-proof. Because they are non-electrical, fiber cables can bridge very high electrical potential differences and can be used in environments where explosive fumes are present, without danger of ignition.

Although fibers can be made out of transparent plastic, glass, or a combination of the two, the fibers used in long-distance telecommunications applications are always glass, because of the lower optical attenuation. Both multi-mode and single-mode fibers are used in communications, with multi-mode fiber used mostly for short distances (up to 500 m), and single-mode fiber used for longer distance links. Because of the tighter tolerances required to couple light into and between single-mode fibers (core diameter about 10 micrometers), single-mode transmitters, receivers, amplifiers and other components are generally more expensive than multi-mode components."

Answer 2

norm now is 0.5mm copper in polyethylene twin outer sheathing.

Answer 3

Wire in TELCO lines are made from 26 thru 19 gague copper with plastic color coded insulation. Fiber optic cable is not wire and doesn't pertain to your question.