Attempted cable theft disrupts phones and Internet

This happened to a mate of mine, he just got back on line and mailed me this story:

http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/Cambridge/Hundreds-o...

Nick

And tomorrow it will happen somewhere else, on Saturday in another town, next week there will be three or four more and so on.

It is a pity BT cannot get compensation from the criminals when they are caught. BT is forced to pay compensation to their customers for a fault that is not BTs doing - but cannot claim it back from anyone. Maybe recovering the full costs including seizing property might get the message home to the thieves.

I'm pretty sure when caught they do get compensation. I went looking for a BBC story as they often report on this - I found this video where BT employees were part of the gang! http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-20718555

they won't be paying compensation for MBORC, but will have to pay the up front repair costs.

I guess I meant to say BT would get money back if the thieves are caught.

I didn't think anyone got compensation when BT declared MBORC, I thought that was their get out of jail free card?
EDIT: Just re-read your post and see that's what you meant

Edited by b4dger (Wed 30-Oct-13 16:29:47)

That is another reason for moving to a fibre solution.

It has happened to me - plus the other umpteen 100 subscribers on the same multi-set of E-sides.

BTOR spent a considerable amount of time - like over a week working dawn to dusk including Saturday to fix it.
They had their big workshop lorries on site one at each end of the "problem"
Plus the traffic lights at either end for safety etc.
They obviously had to cut back to the nearest joint boxes back from the damage
Also mend damage to the civil infrastructure as well as the cables.
Frankly I couldn't fault them in anyway for the time, effort and number of BT people involved in sorting it out.

It must cost them (and us) a lot of money both directly in materials and in terms of staff time which of course is being diverted from other activities.

There is no way that the full cost to BT is ever recovered from te criminals. Similarly when they steal cables from te railway network - the cost is tens of thousands and that is never recovered.

In reply to a post by Michael_Chare:

That is another reason for moving to a fibre solution.

I didn't think that made much difference as the thieves didn't know the difference, and would steal the cable eitherway.

In reply to a post by cheshire_man:

In reply to a post by Michael_Chare:

That is another reason for moving to a fibre solution.

I didn't think that made much difference as the thieves didn't know the difference, and would steal the cable eitherway.

They might be disappointed with my present phone line. It is most aluminium.

In reply to a post by Michael_Chare:

In reply to a post by cheshire_man:

In reply to a post by Michael_Chare:

That is another reason for moving to a fibre solution.

I didn't think that made much difference as the thieves didn't know the difference, and would steal the cable eitherway.

They might be disappointed with my present phone line. It is most aluminium.

But they won't know that until after they've knicked it. Although, could be a benefit to you as maybe BT would then replace it with shiny copper.

It shows how useless the politicians response has been. Having to show ID and be paid by cheque will affect all the honest people selling legitimate scrap but the bent dealers and thieves will carry on as usual.

The ridiculous thing is that from 1st December you wont even be able to sell your car to a breakers yard for cash.... and you will have to produce ID. But after our leaders taking decisive steps to deal with this scourge... I am still reading about idiots being hospitalized after trying to nick High Voltage cables...

In reply to a post by warweezil:

I am still reading about idiots being hospitalized after trying to nick High Voltage cables...

Isn't that called natural selection? We will end up with a more intelligent criminal class because the idiots will all have died from electric shocks.