Fayette County, Pennsylvania

Brazen copper thieves have taken to ripping phone cable right off the poles in an effort to cash in on resurgent copper pricing, usually to feed expensive drug habits like the ones discussed when you visit this web-site.

In southwestern Pennsylvania, repeated thefts have gotten so bad Verizon announced a $50,000 reward for information leading to the prosecution of those involved.

The epidemic of copper theft in Fayette County has reached an all-time-high as Verizon finds large sections of working cable stripped right from telephone poles.  When the cables come down, phone and broadband service goes out.

“These thefts are incomprehensible because they put people’s lives in danger and can cost thousands of dollars to repair,” said Michael Wagner, director of construction for Verizon Pennsylvania.  “We will not tolerate these deliberate and malicious acts against our telephone network and our customers.”

As a result of these crimes, hundreds of Verizon local phone customers have unnecessarily experienced telephone service delays – up to several days in some cases – and endured risks to their personal safety.

“They’re putting people who rely on phone service out of service,” Verizon spokesman Richard Young explained. “They’re putting customers who need service in danger in the event of an emergency to call an ambulance, to call the fire department. This person is putting the lives of people at risk.”

Verizon has suffered nine losses across the county in just a month:

• April 22 in Uniontown – A 360-foot section of copper cable was cut and stolen.
• April 25 in Farmington – A 600-foot section of copper cable was cut and stolen.
• April 26 in White House – Nearly 400 feet of copper cable and a fiber-optic cable were cut and stolen.
• May 5 in White House – A 290-foot section of a copper cable and a fiber-optic cable were cut and stolen.
• May 11 in Shoaf – A 300-foot section of cable was cut and stolen.
• May 11 in Smithfield – A 230-foot section of cable was cut and stolen.
• May 12 in Haydentown – More than 1,200 feet of copper cable and a fiber-optic cable were cut and stolen.
• May 14 in McClellandtown – Two sections of copper cable totaling 500 feet were cut and stolen.
• May 17 in Gates – A 350-foot section of copper cable was cut and stolen.

Southwestern Pennsylvania is by no means alone in confronting copper theft.  Across the country, thieves are stealing copper wiring from every utility.  Thieves also steal copper pipes from homes, and in a new trend, are stripping copper coils from air conditioning units.

The reason for the interest in copper is its ever-increasing value.  Copper prices exploded a few years ago, and have trended upwards ever since.

Copper price trends

In January 2009, copper was bringing “just over a dollar a pound,” according to Lee Swann, a security contractor who works with Georgia Transmission Corporation. Today — “depending on what type of copper it is” — the metal is bringing $2.80-$3.10 per pound — an all-time high for many recyclers, even as prices have recently declined on the spot market.

At those prices, the incentives are there for theft.  Recovering and recycling copper has been a growth business for years, and many companies aggressively advertise “top dollar paid for recovered metals” promotions in newspapers and circulars.

Some recycling facilities are vigilant for suspicious truckloads of “recovered” copper while others are less so.  But as law enforcement confronts the growing trend in copper theft and utility companies begin offering rewards to stop it, many facilities are now regularly cooperating with local police.

Most of the proceeds from stolen copper likely go towards illegal drugs, particularly methamphetamine, believes the Coalition Against Cable Theft, a Washington-based advocacy group funded by home builders, contractors, and utility companies who are usually the victims of copper theft.  The Coalition wants strengthened laws to deter recyclers from accepting and paying for questionable sources of recovered copper.

Perhaps copper theft would be just one more reason why providers should dump copper wire for fiber optic networks, but many of the thieves are stupid — indiscriminately cutting and tearing down cables of all kinds, only later to find they were stuck with fiber optic cable, which most immediately discard at the base of poles, deemed worthless.

Anyone with information about the Pennsylvania copper capers can contact Verizon Security at 412-633-4902 or the Pennsylvania State Police at 724-439-7111.  In other areas, if you discover suspicious activity, call 911.

The money and utility service you save may be your own.

[flv]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/KDKA Pittsburgh WALA Mobile Copper Thieves 5-10.flv[/flv]

KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh covered an earlier copper theft of Verizon wiring and WALA in Mobile ran a very similar story about copper thieves plaguing AT&T.  (4 minutes)

A retiring state senator wants to throw North Carolina consumers under the bus with new legislation that could cost residents millions in savings on their cable, telephone, and broadband bills.

Senator David Hoyle (D-Gaston), has introduced S1209 — what Hoyle calls “The Nonvoted Local Debt for Competing System Act.”  We call it “The Anti-Consumer Muni-Killer Act,” representing little more than a lavish parting gift to telecommunications companies that have supported Hoyle for years.

As we have been reporting here, here, here and here for the past few months, the telecom industry has pulled out all the stops looking for friends in the state legislature to do their bidding.  This year, the industry is following the game plan it has used successfully in other states to kill potential community-based competition for their broadband duopoly.

The state’s cable and phone companies (and their legislator lackeys) argue that taxpayers should not be on the hook for municipally-owned networks.  In the guise of “protecting consumers,” Hoyle and his bill’s co-sponsors would compel municipalities to fund municipal broadband projects with General Obligation B0nds — a regulatory minefield that includes referendums held at taxpayers’ expense and direct taxpayer involvement in the funding process.

As we’ve discussed earlier, Hoyle’s proposal would compel endless referendums for everything from system construction and financing to basic system upgrades and repairs.  The implications of such legislation:

• It makes municipal broadband projects untenable. What local government would consider a municipal project that would require endless referendums?  The only thing Hoyle didn’t include in his bill was a mandatory public referendum about where the engineers should order lunch.
• Someone has to pay for the referendum process — North Carolina taxpayers.  So much for protecting the taxpayer!
• The legislative minefield Hoyle lays for local communities is tailor-made for well-financed telecom industry opposition campaigns that are designed to demagogue municipal competition while tying the hands of communities to fight back.

The irony is, the current system already in place in North Carolina protects state taxpayers.

Both proposed and operational municipal broadband systems rely on Revenue Bonds that have to be approved by the North Carolina Local Government Commission.  These Revenue Bonds are not taxpayer-funded, and local residents are not on the hook should something go wrong.  The financing agreements with investors are designed to pay off the costs of such systems over time and they then become self-supporting.  But even from day one, municipal broadband represents an asset to a community’s efforts to attract digital economy jobs.

They also save you money.  Just ask the residents of Wilson, who didn’t face a rate increase outpacing inflation and finally had an alternative for “good enough for you” broadband from current providers.

Unfortunately, the current system is no good for Senator Hoyle because it doesn’t protect his friends in the phone, cable, and broadband industry, threatened with competition that would derail their duopoly gravy trains for good.

Hoyle should be willing to admit as such, considering his friends in the cable industry already have.  Marcus Trahen, a lobbyist for the North Carolina Cable Telecommunications Association told legislators at a Revenue Laws Study Committee meeting, “We don’t care if cities have internal systems; what we are worried about is competition.”

Under the guise of “protecting” taxpayers, Hoyle only manages to guarantee fat profits for Time Warner Cable, AT&T, and CenturyLink (formerly Embarq) without better pricing and service for you.  Perhaps Hoyle forgot North Carolina is ranked 41st out of 50 states for its comparatively-mediocre broadband services, mostly provided by those three companies.

Hoyle also argues that publicly owned systems harm private industry, despite the fact many in private industry support municipal broadband.  Several letters of opposition to S1209 have been sent to legislators from companies like Google, Intel, Alcatel-Lucent, and five private provider trade associations.

Hoyle doesn’t plan to stick around and watch the damage his proposed bill would create for North Carolina’s economic and high tech future.  After he retires from public office, his bill would leave a legacy of tied hands among local communities from Asheville to Greenville, and all points in-between.  Doesn’t your community deserve a better option?  If you want a third option that could dramatically lower prices and offer better service, shouldn’t local officials have the right to offer it if current providers won’t?

The fact is, none of these municipal projects would even be proposed if the cable and phone companies delivered the service communities want at fair prices. Cable and phone companies don’t need to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to defeat these projects — they could simply lower their prices and offer the kind of service consumers demand.

For Hoyle’s part, he’s shocked…  shocked to discover consumers are offended by his telecom-friendly attitudes.  He told Indy Weekly, “the lobbyists don’t influence me; I’m in the pocket of the people that provide jobs for this state, and Time Warner Cable employs 8,500 — I can’t imagine anyone that would want to compete with that.”

Senator Hoyle weighed the interests of Time Warner Cable against 9.4 million North Carolina consumers and sided with the cable company.

Let’s push the scale in the other direction.

What You Need to Know

The author of S1209 is  Sen. David Hoyle (D-Gaston).

The bill currently lists five co-sponsors:

• Sen. Peter S. Brunstetter (R-Forsyth)
• Sen. Clark Jenkins (D-Edgecombe/Martin/Pitt)
• Sen. Jerry W. Tillman (R-Montgomery/Randolph)
• Sen. Dan Blue (D-Wake)
• Sen. Fletcher Hartsell (R-Cabarrus/Iredell)

The latter two, Sens. Blue and Hartsell were formerly on our supporters list, and we’re reaching out for clarification as to why they are listed as co-sponsors on this bill.  We’ll update our readers about whether they will stand with North Carolina consumers or the telecom industry as soon as we hear back from their offices.

Your Action Alert

You must immediately contact legislators on the Senate Finance Committee, set to consider Hoyle’s bill this week, most likely on Wednesday.  But don’t wait until then.  You should be making contact today, just in case the bill gets voted on earlier, before opposition has a chance to build.

Tell the senators to oppose S1209 for the benefit of North Carolina’s economic future:

• Make it clear voting for this bill is just another way to stop municipal broadband from delivering the kind of broadband service North Carolina wants and needs to grow its economy.
• S1209 was custom-crafted to protect the interests of incumbent phone and cable companies, not North Carolina consumers.
• The current system already protects taxpayers because they are not paying for municipal broadband projects.  S1209 forces local governments to spend taxpayer funds on endless referendums.
• Explain you are already empowered to stop unwanted municipal projects through organized vocal opposition at town meetings as well as at the ballot box.  But your town would not be empowered to offer services private providers refuse if S1209 becomes law, because the legislation forces such projects into miles of red tape.
• Worst of all, S1209 gives phone and cable companies plenty of time to demagogue such projects, spending ratepayer funds in a hopelessly mismatched fight.
• Let them know you see through S1209’s anti-competitive intent, and you’re prepared to vote for those who stand up for North Carolina consumers and oppose these types of telecom industry-friendly bills.

Important! When writing, -DO NOT- simply carbon copy everyone on a single e-mail message.  Those mass mailings are discarded, unread.  For maximum effectiveness, send an individual e-mail to each legislator and another to their legislative assistant. Calling the legislator’s office can be even more effective and immediate.

Here is the list:

Free Press is raising money to buy advertising to remind residents in cities where Comcast has a lock on cable service that it now wants to acquire NBC-Universal.

Comcast won The Consumerist’s 2010 “Worst Company in America” award for its poor service, beating Ticketmaster, AIG and Countrywide Home Loans.  Now that’s a tough neighborhood.

Free Press wants to remind consumers if things are this bad now, imagine what they’ll be like when America’s largest cable company also owns a major U.S. television network and studio.

For its troubles, Comcast gets a small sculpture that Consumerist describes as “the Golden Poo” and the dubious honor of being mentioned in stories like this, notes The Washington Post.

Other contenders for the award included Bank of America and Cash4Gold.  They should have probably also included Chase Bank, which has been bloodsucking Americans since the days of the railroad robber barons.

[flv width=”640″ height=”380″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/Fox News Big Brother Getting Bigger 5-11-10.mp4[/flv]

Fox News has a special way of conflating consumer protection rules with a “takeover” of private business. Megyn Kelly moderates a “fair and balanced” debate between Jim Harper of the Cato Institute and Josh Silver of Free Press. (4 minutes)

Kelly frames the debate as an Obama Administration “takeover of the Internet, is it good or bad?”

With a setup like that, Silver had his work cut out for him.

Unfortunately, whenever Silver spoke, Kelly interrupted, at one point telling him discussions about “Net Neutrality” were way above the heads of the typical Fox News viewer.

For viewers keeping score at home, here is how Kelly divided up the time:

• Harper: 1 minute, 17 seconds with no interruptions
• Silver: 47 seconds, interrupted twice

Kelly’s framing of the issue put her squarely in Harper’s camp, which effectively added an extra 104 seconds of Obama paranoia cheerleading.

We report. You decide.

Severe thunderstorms have knocked out several utilities for residents in parts of Alabama tonight including PCL Cable, broadband, and telephone service.  A large number of PCL customers in Decatur and Athens have lost service tonight.

Customers trying to get answers from PCL Cable are getting the usual result when major service outages strike: endless busy signals.

PCL Cable was acquired by Knology Cable last November.  For the record, Knology was answering their customer support lines with no hold time this evening in Huntsville.

A power outage in northern Madison County caused by the thunderstorms moving through the area tonight knocked out power for 600 customers, but service has since been restored.