Thieves in Southern California have been hitting the state's two largest carriers with a problem that is more typically seen in third-world nations. Over the last six weeks, perpetrators have been stealing cable from Pacific Bell and Verizon Communications, causing telephone service delays and tens of thousands of dollars in damage to the operators' property.

Thousands of feet of copper cable have been cut or stolen from live networks, presumably for its resale value. The majority of cable affected was located underground, though there has been one instance where aerial cable was stolen (see box).

According to a Verizon spokeswoman, the underground thefts are more brazen than the aerial thefts. “They have to lift those 300-pound manhole covers to get the cable out of the ground. They generally go in there and slice the cable in sections, then try to pull it out,” she said. “Then they take the copper and try to sell it.”

About 6100 of Verizon's local and long-distance customers were affected by the resulting outages, which lasted from a few hours to several days, the Verizon spokeswoman said. At Pacific Bell, local service was affected for about 5500 customers for up to a couple of days, the Pacific Bell spokesman said.

According to Verizon, replacing just the cable will cost $8.43 per foot, not including labor.

Both companies are offering $10,000 rewards for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the thieves.

Amy Lillenberg, a detective with the Los Angeles Police Department, said perpetrators could be charged with grand theft, tampering with telephone wires and trespassing. Grand theft carries a two- to three-year prison sentence, depending on prior convictions, added Randy Fredrickson, detective coordinator for the LAPD.

“Our number one goal is getting customers back in service and eliminating the possible threat to our 911 emergency system,” said the Verizon spokeswoman.

Securing assets such as telecom cable that is in the field is a problem, said Bob Lane, program manager for The Yankee Group. “It's difficult to keep track of exactly what's going on with those assets because you don't have someone out there walking the lines everyday to make sure that they're set up and safe,” he said.

“[Telecom operators] have to move so aggressively because it looks like there's a rash of this,” he added. “They can't afford the service outages or the loss of copper in the cable, but the repair is probably most problematic for them.”