Just as businesses evolve to survive, so do criminals. There has been a recent spike in news reports of thieves targeting telecom tower sites and this is causing headaches for telecom companies worldwide. Telecom towers are loaded with expensive equipment, including batteries that keep everything running when the mains electricity supply fails.

These are highly sought-after items for thieves. A single battery backup unit the size of a large computer can have a 4-figure resale value on the black market.

Telecom towers are unmanned sites, often in remote locations where thieves can come and go practically unnoticed.

Compared to other crimes that could net thieves thousands of dollars from a single theft, this carries a very low risk of being caught.

To steal these batteries, thieves will often cut through fences with power tools, and smash their way into equipment rooms, leaving a trail of destruction for the company to clean up and repair.

Telecom companies then have multiple problems to deal with.

They have a telecom tower with no battery backup power, which means thousands of customers could be disconnected if the power fails. This could endanger lives if people aren’t able to call for an ambulance or other emergency services.

They then have to repair the damage that has been caused, which could be as serious as a fence or wall that has been irreparably damaged, as well as other equipment and hardware that was damaged in haste to steal the batteries.

In addition to this, nothing is stopping the thieves from returning a few days later to repeat their crime once the site has been repaired and the batteries replaced!

Detection Technologies can solve this problem.

While upgrading the physical security around a telecom site is always encouraged, this will not stop thieves; it will just slow them down. A determined criminal will go to any length to take what they want, and if this means cutting through a stronger fence or a thicker padlock, they will.

What will stop the criminals in their tracks is knowing they’ve been caught and a security team or the police are on their way to apprehend them.

This is how a PID (Perimeter Intrusion Detection) system will change everything.

A PID system using VibraTek Plus sensor cable on a perimeter fence, or VibraFon seismic sensors in a wall will allow you to detect the intruders as they are attempting to enter the site.

Audible and visual deterrents such as flood lights, sirens, strobe lights, recorded messages and even Smoke Cloak systems can be triggered to start when an intruder attempts to gain entry to the site.

CCTV cameras are always useful for verifying what is taking place on-site, but they can never replace a high-quality PID system. A CCTV camera cannot alert you to an intruder entering your site. Even the most cutting-edge CCTV systems that promise video analytics and AI motion detection can’t eliminate both false positives (false alarms), or worse, false negatives where the camera fails to identify a genuine threat.

Multiple PID systems on hundreds or even thousands of sites can be monitored from a single control room.

Within a couple of seconds of an intruder attempting to scale a wall or climb a fence, the PID system will have activated your security features and the intruder will know they have been detected and inevitably flee.

Detection Technologies can provide bespoke-designed systems to protect any number of telecoms tower sites and deploy them anywhere in the world.

Our PID systems require practically zero maintenance – significantly less than other equipment installed at a telecoms tower site – and are designed to operate for years on end without user intervention.

For more information, contact Detection Technologies today.

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