Orange is on the frontline when it comes to copper theft in France, which indiscriminately impact individuals, companies, and essential infrastructure and services such as hospitals and public buildings. Cyril Luneau, Orange Director in charge of relations with local authorities, speaks about how this issue involves many Orange employees and what they are doing to deal with it.
Have you noticed an increase in copper cable theft?
C.L.: “Yes, indeed. The theft of copper cables is becoming more widespread in France. At Orange, we’re seeing a constant and exponential increase in these attacks. To give you an idea, we recorded more than 1,300 thefts in the first half of 2024, compared to 1,500 flights in the whole of 2023, i.e. 1,200 km of cable stolen, 1,000 in 2022 and 200 in 2021.”
Cyril Luneau
Why has there been such an increase in copper theft?
C.L.: “Copper is a valuable metal. Copper demand has doubled in the last 25 years globally, due to its usefulness in various sectors such as cable design, battery design, electronic circuits, piping, transportation, and coin manufacturing. This high demand makes it a prime target for copper thieves and it’s becoming an epidemic in France and around the world.”
What are the worst impacts from copper thefts?
C.L.: “When these attacks impact our telecoms services, customers lose their telephone and internet access, which is a major problem in today’s world where connectivity is now essential. These service interruptions also hit the community hard through emergency services (hospitals, firefighters, police), business impacts for companies, and local authorities in terms of service unavailability for citizens. These offences are therefore a broadscale social problem and can damage Orange’s reputation. What’s more, the thefts can take place repeatedly in a geographical area and continue to badly affect the lives of businesses and individuals over many months.”
How can Orange protect itself against these thefts?/h2>
C.L.: “The fight against this crime is a daily priority because thieves play a ‘game of cat and mouse’ and monitor any new measures taken. Our solutions are therefore constantly evolving to counter them, and we focus on securing our network with innovative solutions, repairing it quickly in the event of theft, and building close relationships with local and national authorities.”
The fight against this crime is a daily priority because thieves play a ‘game of cat and mouse’ and monitor any new measures taken. Our solutions are therefore constantly evolving to counter them.
Can you clarify what you mean by “close relations with authorities”?
C.L.: “We’ve already signed multi-operator agreements to prevent criminal attacks on telecom networks with 79 prefectures. The aim is to create a framework and ensure all stakeholders are committed to addressing this social issue.
Each theft is systematically reported, and in-depth work is carried out with the police to raise awareness of the importance of these cable thefts.
The measures in place promote more effective collaboration between law enforcement and the legal system because preventing network access is a serious crime. Several convictions have been made in recent months.
What’s more, we’re actively working with the French Telecoms Federation to change the law and obtain tougher penalties for network attacks that put lives at risk.”
So Orange is doing everything it can to deal with copper theft?
C.L.: “Yes, Orange is fully mobilized! As an infrastructure operator, our technicians are working to repair any network damage caused by these thefts as quickly as possible. They may have to replace several kilometers of cable and individually reconnect each customer to their operator to restore their service.
As a commercial operator, we’re also helping our customers as soon as services are interrupted. The 3900 and 3901 hotlines for professionals offer continuity solutions such as 200 GB mobile subscriptions (for 5 people in the premises), a 4G key, or the loan of an airbox in store.
We recommend customers upgrade to fiber if they live in fiber-optic areas and suffer from high recurrences of copper theft. In these areas, we’re also launching campaigns to proactively contact our customers when a theft occurs.
The Orange Local Authorities Relations Directors remain in close touch with local authorities and administrations when it comes to copper cable theft.”