http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/06/georgian-woman-cuts-web-access 75 year old 'hacker', probably with no computer hacking skills- just a spade.
apparently there is about $40m worth of decommissioned 10000 pair copper cable left in the ground around Sydney from the days when backhaul was changed to fibre.. and that stuff weighs about a ton for every couple of metres... All you need to do to find them is just call Dial before you Dig, and they'll send you maps of all the cables in an area...
And this is why there should be redundancy in all network links! Its funny because this sort of thing happens all the time, but usually just farmers with backhoes. On the subject of stealing copper Ive heard stories of theives taking down kilometres of copper powerlines cutting power to outback towns.
This has made me laugh! I used to do a lot of copper scrapping. Buyers will go mental for 'bright copper' back in the UK. Easy enough to get a drum of electrical wire. call it 4 hours work stripping it, you can sell the Cu and Al (casing for the main cable) for a decent price to most dealers. Handy little thing to do before Christmas I'll tell ya...
The funniest thing about Tel$tra is they 'require' a $50 fee to give you the information on their network locations for design work. I swear the process is automated as the response back is damn quick. If they cared that much about their network they would give it out for free like most other utility companies. But hey, if you don't give it to me for free then I don't care, I pass on the responsibility to the contractor.
