Sunday, May 21, 2006
Damage to kempsey telephone network caused by vandals!!!
This morning we heard on air of damaged caused by vandals to a railway bridge carrying cables across a river in Kempsey. I tried to point out that if your thinking of vandalizing an asset namely the Telstra Network, think again because you really don’t know the repercussions it will cause. Apart from it being against the law and attracting the heaviest penalties possible in court it causes more than just niggling frustrations to people it could be life threatening to many and that could be someone close to you.
This recent cable damage effected:
Over 2000 landlines
Over 20 mobile phone base stations capable of handling thousands of mobile calls
Data services – including banks, government offices, internet service providers, clubs and pubs and many more venues
Over 1000 Eftpos Services
Access to emergency numbers
This sort of disconnection from the rest of the network can be life threatening as many people with medical alarms were cut off and it left (for a short time before Telstra was able to reroute the calls) a number of landlines without access to dial emergency services.
This kind of stupid senseless vandalism of a bridge carrying the cables not only effected Telstra and other telecommunications providers utilizing the wholesale network but it had serious effects on the businesses in the local area in Kempsey.
Some these are:
Loss of trading via eftpos
Emergency, fire and hold up alarms not able to report in if there is an emergency
Failure to be able to access internet services, such as email and online trading (via dial up or ADSL)
Business unable to be contacted from outside their local exchange block
Business not able to communicate with its head offices
The financial losses to these businesses and to the telecommunications companies are in some ways immeasurable as often the flow on effects are not something you can see as a tangible loss as it doesn’t just stop with the actual repair bill of the telecommunications asset (fibre cable on the bridge in this case).
I think its time we educated people on the importance of the telecommunications networks and the publics responsibilities to look after this important property. The penalties for damaging such property deliberately should be increased as well. Having worked for an ISP I know the damage to business a cable break can cause and its even more frustrating when its been caused senselessly or deliberately.
This recent cable damage effected:
Over 2000 landlines
Over 20 mobile phone base stations capable of handling thousands of mobile calls
Data services – including banks, government offices, internet service providers, clubs and pubs and many more venues
Over 1000 Eftpos Services
Access to emergency numbers
This sort of disconnection from the rest of the network can be life threatening as many people with medical alarms were cut off and it left (for a short time before Telstra was able to reroute the calls) a number of landlines without access to dial emergency services.
This kind of stupid senseless vandalism of a bridge carrying the cables not only effected Telstra and other telecommunications providers utilizing the wholesale network but it had serious effects on the businesses in the local area in Kempsey.
Some these are:
Loss of trading via eftpos
Emergency, fire and hold up alarms not able to report in if there is an emergency
Failure to be able to access internet services, such as email and online trading (via dial up or ADSL)
Business unable to be contacted from outside their local exchange block
Business not able to communicate with its head offices
The financial losses to these businesses and to the telecommunications companies are in some ways immeasurable as often the flow on effects are not something you can see as a tangible loss as it doesn’t just stop with the actual repair bill of the telecommunications asset (fibre cable on the bridge in this case).
I think its time we educated people on the importance of the telecommunications networks and the publics responsibilities to look after this important property. The penalties for damaging such property deliberately should be increased as well. Having worked for an ISP I know the damage to business a cable break can cause and its even more frustrating when its been caused senselessly or deliberately.
# posted by Peter Saville - IT Consultant @ 7:40 PM 
