Telekom reports 159 cable thefts with RM1mil losses
Published on: Tuesday, September 23, 2014
KOTA KINABALU: A total of 159 cable theft cases have been reported in eight months in Sabah this year costing Telekom Malaysia (TM) nearly RM1 million in losses.General Manager, Sukkuriya Masri said cable theft cases remained one of TM's challenges in providing quality service to the people."We have about 30 cases every month with the highest still in Tawau even though we managed to nab the main cable theft group," he said, adding that there were still others "operating" mostly in the Tawau Sin Onn area.ADVERTISEMENT Speaking to the Daily Express here, he said it was difficult to catch these thieves as nowadays they burned the cable to extract the copper deep inside the jungle. "Their modus operandi is they are not doing it in the warehouse anymore … but we are working with police and they are helping us a lot," he said.The culprits, according to him were not only foreigners but locals too.One of the cable theft gangs in Tawau that TM is hot after is called "Gang Tangga." ADVERTISEMENT "Once they have taken down the cable they will always leave the ladder (tangga) at the scene. That is why we call them Gang Tangga and this is one gang that we have not caught yet," he said.Nonetheless, he said the situation in Sabah was not as bad compared to the peninsula where some extreme cases involved firearms.
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The thieves were also getting smarter and going high tech in carrying out their operations."The way their dress people might think they are our technicians making some kind of repair but actually they are working to take down and steal the cables," he said, adding that there was a case in the East Coast where thieves managed to steal the cable right in front of the police station."They only realised it after we went to check on their complaint about the Internet line problem at the police station," he said. Sukkuriya said TM was also conducting its own patrolling but due to limited manpower it was a tremendous job to check on all its cables at all time, hence public assistance was greatly needed."We are also providing incentive for any information on cable theft," he said."We are also fortunate because it used to be a lot of cases but now it is reducing. Still, it is annoying to the customers because even after we replace the cables they will be stolen again. Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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A system that alerts TM whenever a cable is cut had also been installed but this could not be done in all places, he said."That's why we are moving into Long Term Evolution (LTE), which is a wireless technology," he said.