Copper cabling theft has risen by 9% in the last year as BT spends millions to replace local telecoms circuits.
As the price for scrap copper is ever soaring the theft of copper cabling has become a prolific crime within the UK. More than 200 arrests have been made in the last year, however it still does not help those homes and businesses that lose their phone lines for days at a time. So BT have launched a new incentive which sees its Openreach engineers coating the copper cabling and equipment with ’smartwater’. Smartwater is an invisible solution which will stay on the person who comes in contact with the equipment for up to 60 days.
If anyone is arrested on suspicion of copper theft the police can use ultra violet light to check their skin, clothes, vehicles and homes for traces of the smartwater.
As quoted in the Independent today:
Detective Inspector Robin Conway of British Transport Police said: “Cable and metal theft is high on BTP’s agenda due to the disruption and economic effect it has on businesses and communities. Anyone arrested for metal theft will be examined for traces of SmartWater.”
The system has been used in North London and is also used by Network Rail to both deter and catch the thieves.
This means of catching the thieves is all well and good but the damage will already have been done to the incoming call services to homes and businesses. The economic impact of lack of telecoms is still a big threat and as such, organisations should have back up plans in place to re-route their calls at the local exchange where resilience is maintained at 99.999%, unlinke last mile circuits into their buildings.
Tags: copper cable theft BT
