Showing posts with label copper. Show all posts
Showing posts with label copper. Show all posts

Monday, February 7, 2022

Fiber deprived

Forest Hills-based Doctor Ida Messana says she’s been unable to get Verizon to provide her with reliable service, Dec. 8, 2021.

 

THE CITY 

Dr. Ida Messana, a Queens internist specializing in geriatric medicine, started experiencing internet, fax and landline phone issues in her Forest Hills office last summer and noticed a concerning side effect.

Many of her elderly patients, who depend on phone calls and faxes, as opposed to emails and texts, stopped coming because they could not reach her.

“We lost dial tone on my fax line, so I couldn’t receive or send any faxes. Imagine my patients waiting for their CAT scans, X-rays, their reports of blood, all different kinds of things,“ she explained.

Turned out her fax machine was working, but the line was out. She also relied on the line for DSL internet service to her office.

While her connectivity problems were resolved five months later, Messana fears future service outages. A Verizon technician told Messana that her phone lines are copper, which the company phased out in favor of fiber optic wires.

Most telecommunications companies these days tout their high-speed fiber optic lines, which send light down thin filaments of glass, but copper wires are still in use for some households.

When those metal wires corrode without proper upkeep, New Yorkers who rely on them are left without service.

Tuesday, September 15, 2015

MTA is now securing the copper

From the Times Ledger:

NYC Transit President Carmen Bianco has announced new measures to secure the A-train line in Howard Beach and improve the transit agency’s contingency plans.

He acted after a May security breach and infrastructure theft stranded commuters for hours and prompted a subsequent call for reform from state Assemblyman Phil Goldfeder (D-Howard Beach). Thousands of Rockaway commuters lost subway service because of a copper cable theft that left the A-train line completely shut down.

In a letter to Goldfeder, Bianco wrote that the transit agency has re-secured three locations where holes were cut in the fence separating the A-Train tracks from the street near the Howard Beach-JFK Station. These holes, the agency contends, allowed individuals to gain access to steal copper cables and cut service to the line on the evening of May 26. To prevent future theft, the areas are now being closely monitored by transit personnel and the NYPD, Bianco said.

Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Copper theft an inside job?

From Crains:

Insurance claims for metal thefts across the country have skyrocketed from about 13,000 from 2006 to 2008 to about 25,000 from 2009 to 2011, according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau, which tracks such thefts, though not specifically for rails. Nearly 96% of the more recent claims were for copper.

Along New York City's 840 miles of subway tracks, there have been a dozen such rail thefts in the past year.

In the May 26 heist in the Howard Beach section of Queens, the rubber-shrouded cable had an estimated combined weight of 1,500 pounds that could fetch about $4,500.

New York transit police would not speculate on whether the caper could have been an inside job, but it appeared to have been pulled off over at least a couple of nights by people who had enough knowledge of the system to avoid getting caught or "fried."

They targeted a stretch of track not covered by security cameras, next to a parking lot. Investigators found a hole in the fence they believe the thieves may have used to enter the tracks, then to flee. The culprits also apparently tampered with a nearby electrical box.

Sgt. Kevin Cooper, a veteran investigator on the case, said trains didn't stall immediately because redundancy in the power system allows them to keep moving for possibly another day after copper is removed.

There are other risks. If electrical current can't complete a circuit, it will seek another route, sometimes damaging the signal system. And if a train's brakes go into sudden emergency mode, riders can suffer injuries.

While police seek suspects, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority that runs the subways is installing more high-intensity lighting and surveillance technology in vulnerable locations.

Thursday, May 28, 2015

Proof that people will steal anything

From Capital New York:

A-train riders in southern Queens woke up [yesterday] morning to discover that their commute would be even worse than normal, after the M.T.A. abruptly suspended service between Broad Channel and Rockaway Boulevard.

The cause, as it turned out, was "a massive theft of copper cable from the A line subway tracks near Howard Beach," according to an M.T.A. release.

Roughly 500 feet of copper cable was removed, and some ancillary equipment damaged.

"We are working closely with the NYPD Transit Bureau to help them investigate this crime and identify the culprits responsible," said M.T.A. New York City Transit president Carmen Bianco, in a statement.

This theft did more than force thousands of riders onto shuttle buses and into their cars, which itself is said to have caused traffic jams through Broad Channel.

It also hampered service along the entire 31-mile line, since trains that are stored in the Rockaway Park rail yard for use throughout the city were inaccessible. Nor could trains turn around there or in Far Rockaway.

Thursday, July 31, 2014

Con Edison sprays anti-theft ID on copper wire

Program Will Protect Equipment & Service Reliability

Con Edison has begun a program to prevent copper thefts by spraying identifying markings on the equipment.

The utility is working with DataDot Technology to use a spray system that leaves dot markings on the copper or equipment. Each set of dots has a unique identifier, logo or numbered ID, that is invisible to the naked eye but can be viewed with a UV light.

“We are starting this program to protect our equipment, but more importantly the service we provide to our customers,” said Arturo Claudio, Area Manager with Con Edison Corporate Security. “Thieves who steal our copper that is in use in our electrical delivery system can get hurt or killed, endanger public safety and cause outages.”


Con Edison will work with the police to review records and products at metal and scrapyards. Police can use the dots and records to determine who sold a piece of copper to a scrap yard and where the copper was last stored by Con Edison.

In 2013, Con Edison reported 155 thefts of copper cable from manholes, trucks or other company facilities. Thieves often sell the highly valued copper to scrapyards.