Waveguide systems

The first telephone transmission route from Reading to Bristol was provided by overhead 400 lb/mile, open-wire copper pairs. To use the same technology to provide equivalent capacity as a waveguide over the same route would require 13 Mt of copper costing £10000 million and 85 million poles. A waveguide will require 15 t of copper and 1000 t of steel. But how does it compare with fibre-optic systems?