The machine looks awesome, but it's so complex. It looks like it wouldn't survive two seconds in the Ugandan wilderness. Why not just zip tie the optical cable to the conductor? I bet it could move a lot faster too if it was just tacking the cable instead of this big helical movement.
i can't tell how much sarcasm to read into the zip tie comment, but no power company is going to allow the use of zip ties. the twisting of the fibre cable around the host tension cable is for safety. just attaching a cable to a suspension cable will affect how the cable behave in the wind.
that sounds like a bad installer to me. even in my neighborhood, the most recent additions to the poles have been the fiber cables, and these are even twisted around the existing bundle. it's not a tight twist, but still wrapped around though. a wrap will help prevent unwanted sagging. it's really that simple. for it not to be done just means somebody didn't do their job.
The cable is designed to be strung in the air - it has a core to help it do this as I understand it (and many others are done without a supporting cable).
