Copper cable theft incurs extensive damages to Thai telecom industry

[webfact]

Copper cable theft incurs extensive damages to telecom industry



BANGKOK: -- Theft of copper telecommunications cable is causing large scale damage to the telecom industry with the state owned TOT Plc reporting over 100 million baht damage last year.

Of the damage inflicted on TOT, 20 million million baht was reported in the metropolitan area, and the rest in upcountry.

Five provinces listed as having the highest cases of metal thefts are Nakhon Pathom, Songkhla, Suphan Buri, Ratchaburi and Khon Khen.

TOT assistant vice president Sommai Suksumek attributed rising metal theft cases to social and economical problems, as well as the attractive high price of copper.

He revealed that three groups of thieves are responsible for the telecommunications cable theft.

The first group is youths and drug adducts in the communities, but the stolen cables were not much. However making arrest of thieves in this group is difficult because they are accustomed to the areas and escape routes.

The second group is a professional group which normally will target on adjacent provinces.

The third group is employees of contracting firms hired by telecom operators to maintain and repair the cable systems.

He said this third group has expertise as it is its routine job.

As a precaution, he said TOT has installed theft alarms at risky areas.

As soon as the cable is cut, the alarm system will send signal to nearby police station or local administration offices.

But he said seldom arrests were made, with past statistics showed only 5% of such cases were made.

He called for cooperation from the locals to take care of the cable system saying TOT is a state company with the Finance Ministry holding 100% stake.

Meanwhile Nakhon Pathom police chief Pol Maj Gen Pote Bunmapark said the metal theft has been raised with concern with the governor and it was agreed that authorities will tighten grip on the operation of junk shops.

He said the police will check if these junk shops have business licences or not and whether the bought junk items have their origins or not.

The police will also ask junk shop operators to get information from sellers if their junks were acquired legally and alerted police immediately if they are suspicious if the junks offered for sales.

Source: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/copper-cable-theft-incurs-extensive-damages-to-telecom-industry


-- Thai PBS 2015-04-22

[halloween]

Had an attempt to steal a 33kV copper busbar from the plant I worked at. The board had been isolated through the day for maintenance, was running a nearby conveyor belt as the thief jemmied open the back door of the cabinet and tried to hacksaw through it. Terminal stupidity.

[Mcffee]

Time to put that ugly black spaghetti under the ground then. TOT is not a company that gets my sympathy hence I don't feel sorry for them. They gotta grow up regarding customer care and quality of their products. This is just good lessons for them to make them realize they have to upgrade themselves, step into 2015 and forget 1975. Also in my country Eastern Europeans are specialized in copper cable theft, but never telephone cables because they can't steal them. Simple.

[Aachen]

Fiber optic is the way out. And a form of genstamp (done by the German Deutsche Bahn)..

[Brit_Doggie]

Now i know why mobiles are so popular here, jeez it's a known fact that they steal cables drain covers etc proverb if it moves eat it, if i doesn't steal it.

[jcisco]

Fiber optic is the way out. And a form of genstamp (done by the German Deutsche Bahn)..

Yah except the twits will probably break the fiber trying to get at the trace wires in the bundle. I am not sure why they haven't attempted to remove the amount of trunking that is copper by using mux to fiber to an aggregation point real close to consumers. Sure it another and likely new service point but it shrinks the cable accessible for theft, but entirely screws the lines ADSL services unless your encapsulation and bandwitth is compatible.

@halloween had he come prepared with a diamond wire saw he may of made short work of the copper on such a small piece of metal. Might of noticed the noise though....but seriously what a twit move.

[T_Dog]

Four years ago a couple of thieves tried to steal the power cables going to our village just after dark. Bad timing as a popular Thai series was finishing out so the whole village went out to find the reason the TVs went dark. Must have been twenty people holding the guys at bay until the cops showed up.

[falangjim]

The third group is employees of contracting firms hired by telecom operators to maintain and repair the cable systems.

Confirms my solid (albeit stereotypical and somewhat bigoted) belief that everything should be nailed down should a Thai enter your premises. They can't be trusted.

[chainarong]

The trick is to bury the cable under concrete , the problems we had in Indon you wouldn't believe , like the night a local used a hack saw to cut into electric cable from a portable gen set which was running, he's terminal and bugger me 2 nights later security caught another one at the same spot, they built a new Powerhouse so lots of cable, security and they trenched and concreted all the way across the mine site, seems a problem more so in third world countries although they did keep pinching the road pot hole covers in KL for the steel.at one stage, railway electric signalling is another headache bring on the High speed T

[dragonfly94]

On our estate they stole over 30 water meters one night, amazingly not one bark from all these 'guard dogs' they all have. Think they had copper or brass in them, replaced with plastic looking ones. The first thing most people do on a new house is to cover all the windows with bars, must be the thieving mayamar I expect

[robblok]

The third group is employees of contracting firms hired by telecom operators to maintain and repair the cable systems.

Confirms my solid (albeit stereotypical and somewhat bigoted) belief that everything should be nailed down should a Thai enter your premises. They can't be trusted.

I guess guys like you would be far happier living back in your home country. This country must be hell if you think everyone is out to get you. Guess your one of those guys that makes an exception for the girls.. stating its only guys that are bad.

[masuk]

Had an attempt to steal a 33kV copper busbar from the plant I worked at. The board had been isolated through the day for maintenance, was running a nearby conveyor belt as the thief jemmied open the back door of the cabinet and tried to hacksaw through it. Terminal stupidity.

Sounds similar to a guy in Indonesia who used an axe to retrieve a nice thick, high voltage underground cable supplying the electric train system.

No gain. lotsa pain! terminal.

[Benmart]

The third group is employees of contracting firms hired by telecom operators to maintain and repair the cable systems.

Confirms my solid (albeit stereotypical and somewhat bigoted) belief that everything should be nailed down should a Thai enter your premises. They can't be trusted.

I guess guys like you would be far happier living back in your home country. This country must be hell if you think everyone is out to get you. Guess your one of those guys that makes an exception for the girls.. stating its only guys that are bad.

I prefer to attack and dismantle the post, not the poster. Then again, some find pleasure the later.

[RPCVguy]

TOT must not care too much. Why? A new line that had been strung but not fully installed came down during a windy storm on 10-Apr-2015. Despite 2 calls to TOT the cable is STILL on the ground being run over by vehicles at the spot where it crosses the road.
I thought it was a thick power line and had initially reported it to a work crew, but they said no, it was TOT... then I called TOT and let the work crew speak with them to help better communicate the location. That was the 1st call, on the 11th. Then on the Monday AFTER Songkran I called and again reported the problem. It is now Friday -

Edited April 24, 2015 by RPCVguy

[ChiangraiTony]

Time to put that ugly black spaghetti under the ground then. TOT is not a company that gets my sympathy hence I don't feel sorry for them. They gotta grow up regarding customer care and quality of their products. This is just good lessons for them to make them realize they have to upgrade themselves, step into 2015 and forget 1975. Also in my country Eastern Europeans are specialized in copper cable theft, but never telephone cables because they can't steal them. Simple.

It's not only TOT. It's all of them, AIS, DTAC, etc... Currently 3-G is installed throughout Thailand. Mostly Huawei (Chinese) equipment. The feeder cables for the antenas, filters, and fiber optic equipment are Copper. The power rectifiers and battery cables are also Copper.

This is not only occurring in Thailand. For example: in USA, AT&T and Verizon are the two largest telecom service providers. They encounter Copper thief as well. There are many deterrents on the market but like many things, it doesn't become a priority until it affects the bottom line.

Some of the equipment installation sites in Thailand are remote and off-road. Very easy for such thefts. The thieves bring a large wire cutter and break through the surrounding fence. Once at the equipment they start cutting the cables even up the poles and along the ladder racks where the cables run from the ground up to the 3-G equipment installed on the Towers.

[balo]

Same problem in Europe, gangs from Eastern Europe travel to Germany and Scandinavia to steal copper , in many remote areas they can cut cables all night and get away with it.

Edited April 24, 2015 by balo

[ggold]

Had an attempt to steal a 33kV copper busbar from the plant I worked at. The board had been isolated through the day for maintenance, was running a nearby conveyor belt as the thief jemmied open the back door of the cabinet and tried to hacksaw through it. Terminal stupidity.

Shocking

[gk10002000]

Now i know why mobiles are so popular here, jeez it's a known fact that they steal cables drain covers etc proverb if it moves eat it, if i doesn't steal it.

Yeah, and I recall some articles about two years ago I think where they had stolen grounding connectors and wiring along dozens of kilometers on the Bangkok BTS Skytrain. It was pretty sizable wiring/ cabling and required trucks with cranes etc. or big ladders to even get to. Nobody knows much about such things so the thieves apparently did a lot of their "work" in broad daylight

[gk10002000]

Years ago I worked at Electric Boat in Groton Connecticut. The docks are at the bottom of a pretty long and steep hill down to the water level. One day a guy dropped dead near the top of the hill. Ct. has winters and it was a cold day and they guy was wearing a jacket. When they tried to assist him and got his jacket open, they found he had wrapped himself with some pretty heavy duty copper wiring. That weight is not trivial and as he walked up the hill, it apparently triggered his heart attack.