The latest spate of copper theft has left around a thousand customers without telephone and broadband services in Kent. This prolific crime is disabling businesses and consumers alike as engineers work around the clock to resume normal service.

Copper theft has risen over recent years as the price for the metal has inflated. Whereas for consumers the lack of phone and braodband is a frustrating inconvenience, loss of these services for businesses, particularly SME or businesses which are run from homes, can be a business continuity nightmare.

When copper was stolen from the Thames Ditton area in March, Colin Spencer-Townson, who runs the CTC Professional Systems business from his home in the Woodlands, Esher, said the past week without internet access had been “hell”.

He said: “My business has been seriously affected by this. We run an email service and we had to rush it to another location. It’s been very difficult.

“I’ve definitely lost business from this. I’m trying to get compensation, but I doubt I’ll get any. With the amount of times these things have happened this year, I’m surprised BT haven’t got their act together to deal promptly with these incidents.”

Too many businesses think that they are subject to the time it takes for BT to rectify the situation, however there are a number of telecoms continuity solutions which can ensure resilience against such an event.

Business Continuity managers should be challenging their IT and Telecoms managers on what exactly they have in place to combat copper theft. This crime is easy to commit as the cables run a mere 6 inches under the ground between the local serving exchange and office buildings. Coupled with the demand for copper, the probability of it happening to your business is getting higher. Has it affected you yet?

Too often IT and Telecoms are taken for granted as every business relies on them for successful operation and revenue generation, but we need to be realistic about their vulnerability, which can be exposed by a variety of business disruptions including copper theft, careless roadworks, flooded switches, power cuts and access of denial into a building.