C&WJ Offers US$14,000 in Rewards for Cable Theft Info

UK telecoms giant Cable & Wireless Jamaica (C&WJ) is offering rewards of up to J$1mn (US$14,174) for information leading to the arrest of telephone cable thieves, the Jamaica Observer quoted company COO Jim Pitchford as saying at a press conference.

A rash of cable theft has left the company reeling and communities, which depend on C&WJ's fixed lines, without service.

Pitchford said the firm has reported over J$100mn in losses and of the last 200 instances of cable theft, 76% have been repeated in the same area, the report said.

Cables have been stolen in every parish in the country, with St Ann, St Mary and St Catherine reaching "epidemic proportions," he said in the report.

"There are even cases where we are replacing stolen cables at one end of the route while they are stealing cables at the other end. The fact is that Cable & Wireless has spent billions of dollars developing its telecommunications infrastructure and we cannot afford to have it destroyed and to have our customers without service for indefinite periods because of criminal activity," the report quoted him as saying to journalists.

The reward program began November 12 and will be evaluated for effectiveness after six weeks.

The rise in the copper prices worldwide is reportedly responsible for the theft of copper telecoms cables. The most notable case in recent times of copper cable theft took place in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina, when burglars stripped the city of its copper cables, many of which were live cables resulting in the death of various thieves.

In South Africa, local operator Telkom has joined the local crime fighting organization Business Against Crime and their non-ferrous theft combating committee.

Copper theft currently affects all countries as long as the value of scrap copper remains attractive to thieves.

Posted to the site on 15th November 2007