Now UK Metal Thieves are Stealing the Shells of Broadband Cabinets UPDATE
The saying goes that criminals will steal anything that isn’t bolted down, but the opposite now seems to be true in Nottinghamshire (England), where a spate of recent metal thefts has seen criminals making off with the steel covers from several of Virgin Media’s (O2) broadband and phone street cabinets.
The situation, which typically leaves such cabinets exposed to the elements and thus at risk of damage, is unusual because unlike the normal targets of metal theft in telecoms networks (e.g. copper cables, batteries etc.), the relatively thin steel of such cases doesn’t tend to attract much value from scrap metal yards (e.g. prices vary, but it can be as much as around £200 per tonne; you’d need to steal a fair few cabinet shells to reach a tonne).
According to the BBC News, which identified the problem and has some pictures of the exposed cabinets, a number of covers for Virgin Media’s street cabinets have recently been stolen around the Nottinghamshire area. Naturally, Virgin Media has asked local residents not to touch or go near the cabinets until engineers could attend, although the operator said the safety risk was low.
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So far as we can tell from the pictures, most of the cabinets that have been targeted seem to be of the older and smaller variety, which may carry Virgin Media’s Hybrid Fibre Coax (HFC) based DOCSIS 3.1 network (broadband, phone and TV). But we have seen some other evidence of modern cream coloured FTTP carrying cabinets also being targeted in different areas.
A Spokesperson for VMO2 said:
“Unfortunately, following a recent wave of metal theft in the Nottingham area, covers of cabinets housing broadband equipment have been targeted and stolen.
If residents in the area notice any cabinets with missing lids, they are advised to report this to the relevant operator.”
Sadly, the perpetrators of such crimes never have any regard for the harm they could cause to locals, some of which are dependent upon related services and would be at risk if local services were to be disrupted.
Problems with Virgin Media’s cabinets can typically be reported by dialling 0330 333 0444 or posting to this thread on Virgin Media’s Community Forum.
UPDATE 2:06pm
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Openreach has confirmed to ISPreview that they’ve not yet seen anything like this occurring on their own network. We should also point out that both Openreach and Virgin Media’s cabinets are usually alarmed, although the exact implementation of this is unclear.
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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Any attack on like this should be treated as terrorism, as it will leave people terrified if they lost communication especially if medical devices need internet connectivity.
Cabinets need to be embossed all over, scrap metal dealers who take the scrap should be jailed and their entire business confiscated as proceeds of crime.
See how they like a long stretch.
I believe there is already stronger legislation than just vandalism:
“Damage to telecom equipment in the UK is classified as a security compromise under the Telecommunications (Security) Act 2021, and can be physical or cyber-related, leading to the disruption of services. “
Part of the problem is that at one time work was carried out with clearly sign written vans BT/OR or Virgin. Contractors would have clear signs working on behalf of “”. This would be accompanied with adherence to the New NRSA and general courtesy.
Now we have unmarked vans of various vintage working at all times of the day. If your see any work being done there is no way to know whether it is bona fide work. People are unlikely to confront workers at night and there are unlikely to be passing police officers let alone inquisitive ones.
The industry could help themselves by providing a web page where unusual incidents can be reported (registration numbers and photos) and important structures can have a doorbell camera equivalent.
The telecom industry needs to move to using non-metal cabinets, sharpish to discourage this.
Maybe concrete (glass reinforced with minimum metal), or maybe fibreglass or other strong stiff plasticky composite that is sufficiently fire retardant.
Fibreglass cabinets get too hot so that’s a no go
Do these cabinets have to be made out of metal? Surely a reinforced fibreglass or plastic cabinet could be made that does the job.
Non metal cabinets look to be a top idea.
I was also going to say aren’t scrap dealers meant to ask questions about where scrap has come from before acepting it?
Those virgin media cabinets will be worth even less round my way. None of them have doors on so the scrap value is even lower!
I was going to say something like that. I’m absolutely amazed to hear the cabs are alarmed. I’m in Leicester and most round here were put in 30 years ago and are literally rusting to bits. You wouldn’t need to unbolt anything. Just give them a good pull. Half the doors are held shut with tape!
steel is worth hardly anything. I don’t see this becoming a common problem. The risk of going to jail over £2 worth of steel isn’t worth it.