By Michelle Choi of Lease Advisors
Copper and battery thefts have been occurring at an alarming rate at telecommunications sites across the country. At $3.50 per pound, copper is a valuable material in the recycling market. Carriers and cell tower companies incur thousands of dollars’ worth of damages from copper wiring theft. The culprits often approach the towers disguised as maintenance workers, and arouse virtually no suspicion, as passersby don’t typically recognize the illicit work they are doing. With cell towers often hidden from direct view, ground wire, transmission lines, and other cables are often a vulnerable and easily attainable target for criminals.
What is perhaps even more alarming is the potential damage and cost associated with the theft. For example, in a more severe case, the absence of $50 copper grounding plates made a cell tower vulnerable to lightning strike which caused $25,000 worth of damage when lightning did strike. The thieves also put themselves in danger by tampering with the physical infrastructure of cellular towers. “It’s an awfully, awfully big risk for a fairly small reward,” said St. Joseph County Assistant Police Chief Bill Thompson, “A single tower won’t crash the whole system, but it could certainly take out a part of it. And for people in a certain area or people in a certain carrier, it could cause some significant problems.”
Thompson is referring to another corollary danger that always accompanies cell tower thefts—the failure of 911 emergency communications and first responder systems that could be damaged as a result of telecommunications site thefts. St. Joseph and Elkhart Counties in Indiana have witnessed a dozen cell tower thefts in the past two months. These thefts alone have the potential to put entire communities in danger of nonresponsive in life threatening emergencies requiring police, fire, or medical assistance. Additionally, emergency communications across the country already face difficulties with location data, data relay systems, legislative delays, and the effect of inclement weather on cellular infrastructure.
Carriers and tower companies have recognized these concerns, however, and cell tower protection systems have been made a priority. For example, a technique called crimping that creases copper wires at every foot makes it nearly impossible to remove them. Intrusion detection devices such as security cameras, guards, acoustic sensors, and alarms have also been increasingly applied at cell sites to safeguard against theft, and more importantly, the critical uses of the communications systems that depend on them.
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