Alabama Leads Nation in Copper Theft

Why does this not surprise me. There are too many jokes in relation to the population and this activity.

The tooth pick was invented in Alabama. If it was invented in say New York, it would be called a "teeth pick".

lol

Desperate rednecks !

It's a good thing there's no market for scrap fiber. Maybe they should hurry up and convert and let the water company worry about copper theft.

There have been plenty of stories about fiber being cut down because the copper theifs didn't know the difference until it was too late.

Won't be a problem when it's all fiber!

My posts are, of course, tongue-in-cheek, companies shouldn't have to switch to fiber just to avoid having their copper stolen. But it would be a bonus!

I think if you took a poll of users around here, they'd tell you the copper thefts were all part of a master plan to "encourage" fios deployment.

The real master plan is to eliminate all phones that depend on wires or fiber to the home and switch everyone to wireless or no phone at all.
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Don't let the pluperfect be the enemy of the perfect.

Here you go...

»www.10tv.com/live/conten ··· ?sid=102

They are just as SMRT here in MI.

If its not the city manhole covers some fool is taking live
wires off the pole. Duhhhhhhh.

This is another reason it would be to Verizon and AT&Ts advantage to upgrade urban areas to FiOS. Like they said, scrap fiber has no resale value and is pretty much worthless when removed from service. The area where I live (Springfield, MA) has high crime and Verizon leaves (copper) wiring cabinets unsecured and can be opened with a socket wrench. They could at least use a padlock on them.

DARWIN AWARD to late Mr Greer in Columbus, OH !

It would be interesting if some bean-counter at the Comm-Behemoths Verizon and ATT would wake to their increased valuation of copper plant (metal cost reclamation, replacement of out-dated terminals, DSL phase out...) and roll out more fiber to rural areas (atleast main trunks which I would think they have already?).

But I think thieves are more for the heavier gauge copper (utility-electrical-grounding lines) than the communication bundles (20-2400pair of insulated/jacketed 20-22 gauge..stripping that alone ain't worth it). Ofcourse, thieves aren't the brightest, till they hit live wire!
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Splat

they don't strip it, they burn the insulation off it.
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Oh YES! let me drop everything i'm doing regardless of who it affects to deal with your petty little problem!

This is why scrappers around here aren't allowed to take wire that's been burned.... to discourage this type of theft.

The take cable out in the woods and burn the insulation off of it. And pollute the air.
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Join Teams Helix and Discovery. Rest in Peace, Leonard David Smith, my best friend, you are missed badly! Rest in peace, Pop, glad our last years were good. Please pray for Colin, he has ependymoma, a brain cancer, donate to a children's Hospital.

There really isn any need to manually strip the wires. One can burn the plastic off. (Yes, it is a horrible environmental thing, but...)

There is no way that AT&T can upgrade to FiOS, without first buying Verizon.

Bolt cutters are cheap enough and easy to obtain without a license. Padlocks are useless against thieves but good against honest folks.
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Don't let the pluperfect be the enemy of the perfect.

A red state... 'nuff said.

More like a poor state (which almost always also means a red state, of course). But they keep buying that "keep the gub'mint out of my Medicare" and "we've got a spending problem" rhetoric that the TeaTards keep spewing, so they stay poor.

I agree poverty has a lot to do with.

Why is it necessary to use a derogatory term like "TeaTards"? I don't think you adequately explain how being a red state makes it poor. Alabama was heavily Democratic until the 1980s, and was relatively much poorer than it is today.

Of course it was a stronghold for Democrats, when "Democrat" in that part of the country meant the KKK and White Citizens' Councils and "segregation forever" and opposing all social progress for 100 years--also known as extreme conservatism. Unfortunately it was so far behind the rest of the country even post Civil Rights in the 1980s that it's much poorer than the rest of us to this day.

Never heard of the "Blue Dog" democrats in name only, or the racist democrats still pining for Jim Crow? There here quite allot of those down there.

You can't take the party name to mean anything, our system is incredibly roken because it only allows for 2 parties, every attempt to remedy that problem has been shot down by those in power since if there where suddenly 30 viable parties to choose from they couldn't get elected.

See Instant Runoff Voting.
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Ah, another libtard that automatically buys liberal propaganda and automatically calls anyone conservative, from a red state, or from the south is stupid.

Tell you what, lets have a battle of wits, why not? I've seen plenty of dolts like you online and I can assure you that my IQ, mathematical abilities, knowledge, etc, is far greater and the only thing you can do better is insult.

"libtard"

I think I've heard better insults from kindergartners.

quote:

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my IQ, mathematical abilities, knowledge, etc, is far greater and the only thing you can do better is insult.

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I didn't lie

Great, you can use the quote button, it's a shame you can't be an adult and have a mature conversation about this, when you say things like "libtard" that's what makes "liberals" stereotype about conservatives, because there are too many people like you would rather say that than actually have a mature rebuttle and be an adult.. oh wait you watch Fox News and stereotype about liberals, I know far more conservatives who use the government more than "liberals", shut up and get out of your hole there bud and see the real world.

Hey einstein, libtards started the flaming...

And as for you, since you don't like the word 'libtard' how about idiot? I never watch fox or any news, I get mine from sites like this or [H]ardforum, and I spend my time either learning things or going to the gym.

Do you know any mathematics beyond basic math? Try me anytime. I bet you are as dumb as you sound.

trolololol

I'm going to say that south has a record of being poor, the poorest states are generally in the south, so stealing copper isn't something surprising, people are willing to steal and sell anything these days, and copper is getting more valuable, and especially in underdeveloped areas it's easier to steal copper and cable especially in the rural areas.

And to respond to Meta's spew..

First, when you say libtard, you lose all credibility, so I should actually end there, no one will take anything you say seriously, obviously you like to use that term and terms like that to troll and and to get a temporary rise out of people.

Second, have you learned yet to talk like an adult, to use terms that are intelligent and not making yourself looking like a hick for lack of a better word? You should work on that, I think you might gain 0.001 % in credibility if you learn to put a real talking point together and to actually look like someone who knows what he's talking about.

My job doesn't require advanced math, your lack of intelligence shines on your point about bringing up math, do you think everyone has to have a PhD in applied mathematics or physics to make a good living and be intelligent? I pay my own bills on my own yet I know I can't do everything on my own realistically, but I know not to spend more than I make unless I have to in certain situations that I know I will be able to pay them off in the future
.

I doubt you have either of those degrees I mentioned above, are you some super genius who's a computer networking major and mathematician or physics major? I severely doubt it and lying doesn't make you cool, and I hate to break it to you, but being good at math don't make you look intelligent and doesn't make your inferior and incredibly lacking statement credible at the least. But I know being a tough internet extremist hack is time consuming.. and i've already consumed enough of my time on this as it is.

So again, if "libtards" started flaming, why do you add to the fire? The only reason is to get a rise and try to prove your extremist points and to look like a big macho who uses math as his best argument, yet it has nothing to do with what you said or anything other to make yourself even more lame and unimpressive.

So you don't watch any news, and get your news about what's happening in the world from here or Hardforum? So your saying you have no idea what goes on in the real world in your country on this continent or the rest of the world? Rethink that statement if you possibly can and clarify, because that just makes your already feeble "points" worthless even more.

Go somewhere else, unless you want to keep making a fool out of yourself, I'd suggest shutting up, and if you want to make a point think at least a little bit before you open up and spew.

P.S: Threatening with math doesn't work work here, especially online and on a website about telecommunications related and net neutrality based news and other computer or internet related sub forums, if you had an ounce of common sense or intelligence, rethink that one again..

Wow, after your pointlessly obtuse rant you really showed me.

Ahh, if you believe that education necessarily means wisdom, then you've lost already.

I would prefer government stays out of health care, especially the DEA.

As for the spending problem, you don't feel borrowing money from China to give to Pakistan is a "spending problem"?

The poorest states are the red states, they're also the ones with the highest dependence on federal funding just to keep going since they have such low revenue.

Freedom not to pay taxes means you're free to also not partake in things like roads.

Thanks for the explanation.

Isn't Georgia a red state as well, Mr Glass House?

What part of Red State do you not understand? Duh. He said it all - there is nothing else to say.

Pretty pointless statement!

I live in Northern Alabama and worked for NASA for 22 years, not on welfare or needed to steal copper. This State helped put us on the Moon and the Marshall Space Flight Center is located here. If you want to "dissect" and point out a segment of the population that is on welfare and "teatards" as you call them, I'm sure if you look around in your State they are there too....»blog.al.com/breaking/201 ··· orb.html
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"I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them." -- Thomas Jefferson

1000 pair got cut.

»www.youtube.com/watch?v= ··· e=relmfu

embedding disabled

click on the watch on youtube.

In Florida VZ was smart to go with Fiber. But what happens when VZ starts to to force migrate Copper customers to FiOS ? VZ already has 3/1Mpbs DSL speed tier on FiOS. Last I heard VZ wanted to force switch everyone in wesley chapel FL because FiOS Penetration is so high there thanks to the then new home construction of homes with fiber already installed. Will VZ sell the Copper POTS network to another provider ? I Don't think so. But IF VZ Recycles the copper then it has the extra funds to purchase more fiber For FiOS without crying about not making enough revenue from FiOS and the Copper thieves will have to look elsewhere.

»www.fiercetelecom.com/st ··· 11-08-12

Replacing copper with fiber

Another area where Verizon believes it can possibly reduce costs is to shut down its aging copper network and move customers onto fiber where it has gained decent FiOS penetration.

Last year, the service provider migrated a number of its customers in Bartonsville, Texas off the existing copper network and onto fiber.

"It was a neighborhood that had more than 50 percent penetration so it made financial sense to connect the ONT to the home and delete the copper network," Shammo said, adding that they are "doing a trial in Florida in another community."

Outside of Texas, Verizon is now researching how it could make a similar copper to fiber transition in Wesley Chapel, Fla., a rural town outside Tampa.

Regardless of its progress in replacing copper with fiber, Shammo is quick to point out that the real cost challenge with deploying FTTH is not the equipment, but actually the man hours it takes to connect a subscriber to the network.

"Because it takes an employee--it's the hourly salary of that employee that gets capitalized for connecting up that home," he said. "That's really the intensive capital nature of the connection. It's not the hardware."

No. To date, everywhere they've strung/buried fibre, they've removed the copper. This is only partially to recover costs -- scrap copper wire really isn't all that valuable. It's mostly about eliminating competition; they aren't required to share access to "next-gen" infrastructure like they are with copper.

[i.e. if you have FiOS installed in your house, the copper line(s) are removed.]

I wonder if Jamie Foxworthy will add this to his "You might be a redneck" list.
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Bit Torrent is my DVR.

to the Grateful Dead?

»www.youtube.com/watch?v= ··· GGMqzdJ4


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Splat

It's all about meth, I'm afraid. The meth-heads get desperate for cash and go out looking for something to steal and resell, and, given that copper is getting good prices, that's what they're going for.

I've also heard stories about them going after air conditioning units because of the copper they contain. There isn't much copper in there, but they tear the units apart to get to it, completely destroying them.

Actually, there's quite a bit of copper in A/C heat exchangers. Copper tubing is everywhere in there. It may have aluminium fins, but it's copper tubing carrying the freon.

(There's several hundred feet of copper tubing in the AC system in my office data center. And a few hundred pounds in the Leibert.)

This is the real reason. I live in NE Alabama and 90% of copper theft is due to meth addicts. Every time you take any thing to the scrap yard now days you have to have a photo Id. Some require a photo Id and proof of residence.
A guy a few miles down the rode from me stole almost 300lbs of copper from a construction site. He then went to the nearest place that would take it and sold it giving them his name address and phone number. Well the cops went there and in hours knew who he was. It had taken them more time to get a no-knock arrest warrant for the man then it did for them to find him. The no-knock was due to past crimes and threats the subject had made in the past.

I am a police officer for the Marshall Co joint task force against meth and a member of there S.W.A.T. when ever a report for stolen copper comes in 90% of the time its from people who are trying to get money for meth. I cant speak for all counties but there is a reason why they calls this Meth Mnt and it could be different in other places across the state.

welp, anything to speed AT&T's decision making process to put more FIBER into the BellSouth geography... get'er done..

last time I checked sand & glass prices were very low... copper? not so much

cousin marriage

The placement cost of the fiber cable and terminating electronic is what is delaying the switch to local loop fiber. The copper is there and still usable for many years. Having users drop landline voice and go to cellular is actually delaying the upgrade to fiber. Lots of those copper wires are now being used for dsl TV services..