[paolo]

In all onesty, the odds of a theif cutting the cable and telephone lines are pretty low, unless they have a very good reason to break into your house and get what they want. No petty theif will do that, more like a pro will. I would not bother with trying to safeguard those lines, maybe wait untill the Temp lines are removed by Rogers cable and they bury a new underground cable, then they might just install a more modern NID box at the same time and run a conduit. The best way is a hole is drilled directly behind the box going into the basement entrance point, so since the cable is behind the box, the part after the nid is hidden from view, you can probaly request the cable installer to put it at a height as close as possible to that, but I think there may be regulations on how high that box must be from the ground, etc... but try it anyways, especially if its a third party contractor that installs your cable.