Mid & North Coast Communication Issues

Telstra is again angry after its fibre at Kempsey was slashed in the third such vandal attack on the lines in two years. According to ABC Online, up to 10,000 people lost broadband, landline and mobile phone services when a fibre-optic cable under the Kempsey railway bridge was slashed. The issue is that these senseless acts put many peoples lives at risk as telecommunications such as a basic phone can mean the difference between life and death if its not working correctly. Telstra were going to put the cable underground after the last attack but it appears not an option because the of the make up of the river bed. The issue is that this cable feeds most of the coast from the tweed to Kempsey, if they loose it due to vandalism many businesses are effected. Whilst there is some back up bandwidth available it cannot carry everything TELSTRA needs to carry so some services miss out. These vandals as far as I am concerned are no better than hackers, virus producers and any other sort of vandal. Heavy fines and gaol terms apply to those found guilty of damaging telecommunications infrastructure. I'm afraid IP based CCTV may the best way of protecting this cable in the future.