Question about the actual cost of cable theft

I was reading a report from the FCC website yesterday, and it said copper theft from telecom lines costs the industry over $500 million a year. That number blew my mind! I've seen cut lines before, but I never added it all up. It's not just the cable cost, it's the crew hours, the customer downtime, everything. Makes me way more mad now when I roll up to a job and see a clean cut. Has anyone else had to deal with a big theft repair recently, and how long did it take you to fix?

3 comments

3 Comments

hart.sage1mo ago

That FCC report probably counts the same repair crews ten times over.

phoenixb341mo ago

That number is huge, but honestly it feels low. The real cost gets passed down to regular people through higher bills and worse service. They never really fix the root problem, just keep patching the same lines.

harper_foster1mo ago

Ever notice how they always dig up the same stretch of road every few years? They'll patch a leak, but the whole pipe under there is probably from like the 1950s and crumbling. My water bill keeps creeping up and I still get brown water sometimes after they "fix" something. It's just a band-aid on a broken system, and we're the ones paying for all their temporary fixes.