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Someone in Massachussetts is VERY unhappy with Verizon. So unhappy that they are taking it out on Verizon’s customers. With a chainsaw:

The phone company Verizon has offered a reward for information about whomever has sliced through cables three times since November, including cutting three lines this week.

In the most recent episode, two local lines were cut in Westford and one in Chelmsford early Wednesday morning. The previous Wednesday, eight lines were cut in Chelmsford, interrupting service to hundreds of customers, including town hall, said Verizon spokesman Jack Hoey.

Those came after a cable was cut on Nov. 8. The company has offered up to $50,000 for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of the person or people responsible for the acts, which Hoey described as “sabotage.”

Interesting. Someone must be really pissed. Though what they plan to gain, except having the feds on your tail as the story details, is unclear. If anything, this person is probably causing more inconvenience to Verizon’s customers, all of which are innocent people and businesses who most likely don’t have a choice as to who their internet or voice service carrier is.

Though it’s also unfortunate that Verizon seems to want to keep this hush-hush. No mention of the situation appears on their press site.

Quick quiz: let’s say you’re a major media powerhouse… or at the very least, a company trying to become a major media powerhouse, and your entire business depends on delivery of your service by satellite. Without the satellites, your company is just plain dead in the water. They cost millions and millions of dollars, and you had to take out sizeable loans to pay for their construction and launch. If they fail, you probably can’t really afford to put a new one on the next available rocket.

That’s quite a risk you’re taking. But that’s what insurance is for, right?

If you’re Sirius, you apparently don’t need insurance. After all, what could possibly go wrong?

Well, according to their most recent 10-Q, things are starting to go wrong… and they buried it in two little lines in the middle of that whole document:

Among the significant factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements are:
[ …]

the useful life of our satellites, which have experienced circuit failures on their solar arrays and other component failures, and are not insured.

::boggle::

Who was the genius that decided not to sign on the dotted line? If you put extremely complex, extremely expensive hunks of metal several miles up into orbit where space debris, radiation and other nasties can affect them over time, then something’s bound to fail eventually. Insurance is just, well, prudent.

Their competitor was wise to this, and in spite of the possibility of similar failures on their equipment, there’s little to worry about because they already claimed with their insurance and new, improved satellites are on the way.

Hopefully the problems those satellites are experiencing aren’t so bad. Otherwise, howard Stern might find himself working for a dog. Oh, wait a minute…