I work in support for an ISP. The problem is that many ISPs deal over copper and copper is unstable. Two circuits on the same DSLAM card, provisioned for the same speed, say 6.0 DSL, may give one customer 5.7 mb/s (some loss allowed for packet overhead) and the other 2.7 mb/s. This doesn't mean the ISP is cheating the customer who gets 2.7, it just means that the copper pair that that customer is on is incapable of supporting faster speed, usually because the margins (signal to noise ratio) are too low because there is too much resistance on the pair (either due to distance or degradation of the copper). They say up to so and so amount because they don't know up front what the state of the copper running to each and every structure is.

Make them answer a multiple choice question based off of the error given, if they answer wrong, the error is displayed again, and again and again, until they pay attention and answer it right.

Fiber is a wonderful thing, but for the price of fiber optic cable in association with the minimal uses for the average person, I don't think it is really worth the cost at this time. NICs and other equipment that can actually utilize fiber are very expensive and just excessive for most homes. Cat5e/6 are the way to go.

OSP fibers are coated in a thick hard plastic, it is quite different from any type of copper signal cable. The closest resemblance would be the insulated coax used for cell towers, which don't contain much copper and would not be run in the same place. I'm not sure that any random person would know that, I just do because I install all types of cable for a living. I would guess that the person who cut these fibers knew exactly what they were doing as they would have been underground, accessible only through a manhole. OSP cables only surface near COs and their MPOEs, other than that you need to go underground or dig to get to one. In other words, you need to know where they are. Considering that the OSP workers with AT&T are the ones most angry and pushing the strike because their double-time pay is being affected, one of them is most likely responsible for this act of sabotage.

the price of copper dropped dramatically a few months ago, copper theft has gone done since then.

Since you have to use Facebook (access the site) to even view the terms of service and then log in (continued use of the site) to delete your account, there is no way they can bind you to the terms. It is much the same as "by opening this software you are bound by the end user license enclosed within." You cannot hold someone to a contract that they must agree to before viewing and force them to sign unconditionally in order to cancel the service they are then bound to. I can't see how a court could take them seriously with those terms. The sole purpose of posting terms like that is to keep the majority of people from complaining (because they will assume that if it's written, it's true), because paying off the minority that does complain and sue still keeps Facebook in the black. They know they're wrong, they just don't care.