Could Copper Theft Affect Central Minnesotans Internet Service?

INTERNET CONNECTIVITY

The Internet. Most of us couldn't function without it. It has become an important part of our daily lives. The Internet has evolved into many people working from home offices, children, and college students learning and doing homework online, not to mention the countless gamers and people who use it for so many other entertainment purposes.

But what would you do if it was stolen from you? That's exactly what's happening to residents in St. Paul. If it can happen in St. Paul, it could happen here in central Minnesota.

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NO INTERNET SERVICE SINCE NOVEMBER

A story that was told yesterday explains how internet customers from St. Paul have been left without any internet service since November, and are now getting messages saying it could be through the New Year before service is restored. So what is the problem?

Mark Molzen, a spokesperson for Century Link's parent company Lumen, says the extended outage is due to multiple cases of copper theft throughout St. Paul and the surrounding areas.

Copper theft has been an increasing problem nationwide. The city of St. Paul says that copper is being stolen more frequently now because scrap copper prices are at an all-time high.

NEW LAW GOES INTO EFFECT JANUARY 1ST

There is a new law recently passed by the Minnesota Legislature that requires people to have a license to sell copper, but there are members of the metal industry who are suing to stop the law. The new law states that people who sell scrap metal copper must have a yearly license of $250 from the Department of Commerce.

The law was put into effect to stop people from stealing copper; which has been costing the Public Works Department millions of dollars to replace and repair. In the long term, I believe we will be okay regardless if copper becomes more of a problem, with the widespread use of fiber optics, but in the short term, it seems to be a big problem for some Minnesotans.