Bell Canada continues its fight against vandalism on its networks.
Bell announced Wednesday that it recently filed a lawsuit in New Brunswick against Stuart McCann, who is accused of stealing copper wire.
The lawsuits allege that the individual stole copper phone lines, causing a disruption in home phone, internet and television services for about 1,000 customers in the Fredericton area for about 12 hours.
As a sign of the seriousness of the crackdown, Canada’s largest communications company has said it is also prosecuting all of Stuart McCann’s accomplices, as well as individuals and scrap dealers who knowingly bought stolen copper.
“Having counted more than 420 security-related incidents on the Bell network since January 2022, 75% of which were copper thefts, we are taking additional steps to protect our critical infrastructure by taking legal action against those accused of vandalism,” said a Press Release Dana Lohnes, Director, Field Service, Bell Aliant.
“Our customers deserve access to reliable communications networks to stay connected and reach emergency services. However, this access is revoked after each incident until repairs are complete,” the Bell Aliant spokesman added.
According to Bell, after Ontario (46% of incidents), New Brunswick would have the most incidents (24%).
Bell is calling on provincial and federal governments to help communications service providers improve the resilience of telecom networks and take bold and swift action to increase fines and make changes to the penal code to reflect the essential nature of these vital security infrastructures in the United States to reflect the US country.