From March 5, 2008 North-West Telecom is starting an information campaign named “Protect Your Home! Don’t Let Them Steal Your Telephone Line!” in St. Petersburg. Its purpose is to draw public attention to the problem of nonferrous metal theft and damage to communication cabling. It is intended to place the information in popular newspapers, on the reverse side of communication services payment receipts, and at sales and customer service centers of the Petersburg Subsidiary of N.W.Telecom.

During the campaign, N.W.Telecom will appeal to the city residents asking them not to be indifferent, and to be attentive to the status and intactness of communication/telecommunication facilities, and primarily on their own block and in their own house or entrance doorway; to act responsibly, and inform relevant authorities about offences related to damage to communication lines and nonferrous metal thefts.

For these particular purposes, an easy-to-remember city phone No. 577-11-11

Broad public attention must be drawn to this aspect, because a disastrous growth of damage to communication networks has been observed in the last two or three years, its origin being thefts of cable containing nonferrous metals. In particular, the number of such thefts in St. Petersburg over the last three years, the losses suffered by N.W.Telecom, and therefore the problems and inconveniences faced by the Company’s customers due to communication breakdowns have multiply increased. In 2007 alone, 598 cases of cable theft were recorded, and over 50,000 flats of Petersburg residents suffered from these. According to the statistics of the Petersburg Subsidiary of N.W.Telecom, the most critical districts in this respect are Nevsky, with over 150 cases of cable theft in 2007, Petrodvorets, with 77 such cases, and Krasnoselsky, with 74 cases.

Of course, N.W.Telecom for its part takes every action possible to overcome the problem, providing alarm systems for communication lines, installing protective lockable manholes, issuing a daily summary of cable theft cases, which is sent to St. Petersburg’s city agency of interior affairs and to the city and district administrations; arranging meetings with officials of law enforcement and government authorities; and regularly participating in spot-checks of nonferrous metal procurement stations organized by the city agency of interior affairs.

However, the problem goes far beyond the frame of reference of the communication operator alone, since the main causes of the more frequent cases of copper cable theft are uncontrolled access to the basement and attic spaces of residential houses, and uncontrolled buying up of nonferrous metal scrap from individuals by procurement agencies, the offenders most often being homeless people, alcoholics, and drug addicts. The above problems can only be solved by an integrated approach, with active involvement of all parties concerned, i.e. communication operators, and St. Petersburg’s Administration, and the city district administrations, and the city agency of interior affairs, and the city residents themselves. By doing their best to contribute to suppression of such crime, all residents of St. Petersburg will ensure safety of their own house, their own entrance door, their own flat, and their own life in the first place.

Later, N.W.Telecom intends to launch similar information campaigns in other regions of the North-Western Federal Districts where the cable theft problem is no less acute.