It's actually rather difficult to break cladded G.657 fiber, and it's much cheaper than copper. Now, at the splice point where you must strip the cladding you a

It's actually rather difficult to break cladded G.657 fiber, and it's much cheaper than copper. Now, at the splice point where you must strip the cladding you are correct it is very fragile. At that point you heat shrink on a splint with a steel rod in it which protects it (and typically place that in a splice case).