kevon.felmine@guardian.co.tt
Investigators are working on the theory that thieves stole hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of fibre optic cables from a Telecommunications Services (TSTT) installation in San Fernando, mistaking them for copper.
However, the selfish act left thousands of people and businesses on TSTT networks without mobile, landline, internet and television services for most of yesterday. It was an act that TSTT strongly condemned as deliberate and selfish and reminded the culprits that there would be legal implications when caught.
Acting Commissioner of Police McDonald Jacob was on the scene at Cross Crossing with officers from the Special Branch and San Fernando Criminal Investigations Department.
Jacob said a team comprising officers from the Special Branch, Central Intelligence Bureau, and the San Fernando CID would conduct the investigation.
Jacob said there are already some leads, and the Police Service (TTPS) hopes to complete the investigation soon. He said the TTPS views the crime as a severe infringement of the country’s communication infrastructure because it posed a security risk to the communication network. There was also high disruption of services to all customers, especially those in the Southwestern and Southern communities.
“It appears to be malicious damage and larceny, and from speaking with the technical persons at TSTT, it is amounting to approximately $1 million in damage,” Jacob said.
The outage affected TSTT customers who tried calling family, relatives, friends and emergency services. The Electricity Commission (T&TEC) activated supplementary emergency numbers for customers who experienced difficulty getting through to its emergency numbers. T&TEC also advised customers to report issues through its Facebook page or the “Lights Out?” link on its website.
TSTT crew on site where the underground cable was vandalized led to widespread outages yesterday in San Fernando.
RISHI RAGOONATH
The theft of copper cable has cost TSTT significantly over the last year, with thieves selling them to companies that export various used metals. It led to Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley threatening to shut down the industry for some time as thieves continued theft of public property, severely hindering the operation of several State services and endangering lives. Despite the warning and promises by the Scrap Iron Dealers Association to weed out the exporters of stolen copper, the illegal trade continues. Reports and videos of rampant copper thefts continue to go viral on social media platforms.
On Sunday, TSTT reported that a malicious act targeting underground cables overnight resulted in service interruptions. The company mobilised crews to restore service, and by 4 pm, it completed most of the work with the normalisation of services to Siparia, La Brea, Penal, Point Fortin and others.
Preliminary investigations showed damage to a critical cable artery that services customers in South Trinidad. Customers in other parts of the country also experienced reduced or interrupted service.
TSTT CEO Lisa Agard assured the public that the company made all efforts to restore service.
“To our loyal customers, our sincerest apologies for this inconvenience. We give you the assurance that our teams are working really hard to restore services as quickly as possible,” Agard said.
She explained that when the company got information about the outage, it dispatched transmission, cable and splicing crews who isolated and repaired many fibre cables.
TSTT also deployed network and broadband engineers to rebuild a link to provide an alternative route from the impacted area to the nearest interconnection point to normalise traffic across the network.