Theft and sabotage, resulting in almost R100 million worth of damage to Telkom's fibre-optic cabling, has been committed during the past three years, says the nation's largest telecommunications utility.
In response to questions from ITWeb, Telkom says that, for the year ended 31 March 2007, R25.7 million worth of theft or sabotage incidents were reported. For the 2008 financial year, this increased to R31.6 million and jumped to R40 million for the year ended 31 March 2009.
While the amounts relating to fibre-optic incidents pale in comparison to theft of copper cable, the trend is similar. For the 2006/7 financial year, Telkom reported copper cable theft had amounted to R674 million. This increased to R919.6 million in the 2007/8 year and surged to R1.279 billion in 2008/9.
Democratic Alliance MP Pieter van Dalen says most of the fibre-optic cable theft and sabotage was more than likely related to thieves looking for copper cabling and not necessarily fibre-optic.
“The information I have received from my sources says that often the fibre-optic cable is damaged and then just left, indicating it is of no use to the thieves,” he says.
Telkom notes its fibre-optic cables are covered with a Kevlar sheath to protect them. Kevlar is a strong fibrous material that is mostly associated with the manufacture of bullet-proof jackets. It has also found other uses, such as helicopter blades and as a protective barrier in harsh environments.
Kevlar rumours
Rumours that organised gangs are using the sheathing to manufacture bullet-proof jackets remain unfounded, although they persist.
“The rumours have been around for a while, especially in relation to those involved in cash-in-transit heists, but nothing has been recovered,” says a source within law enforcement.
“I would not be surprised if we do recover jackets using the Kevlar from fibre-optic cables eventually, because it is the same type of mindset that criminals have when looking for their own competitive advantage, even if the Kevlar used is not up to the same standard as those manufactured for real bullet-proof jackets.”
Dangerous disruption
Van Dalen also says the disruption of fibre-optic links is almost more dangerous than that of copper cables, as fibre-optic cables carry the vast majority of the data over backhaul services.
“Even if the fibre-optic cable is just broken and nothing is taken, it still means downtime and loss of revenue for Telkom and its clients,” he notes.
Van Dalen notes that, where copper cable theft has been reduced, so have the incidents of damage to fibre-optic cabling.
“Telkom does not cooperate with the Non-Ferrous Metal Crime Combating Committee that is made up of all the role players, including the police, in the same way as Eskom does. The operations overseen by this committee not only help educate the public about the dangers and consequences of cable theft, but also help catch the criminals red-handed,” he says.
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