We’ve heard of thieves stealing the copper wiring from phone and cable networks earlier than. However based on AT&T, the menace has grow to be so extreme that the corporate logged over 10,000 circumstances of copper theft final 12 months.
AT&T’s safety investigator, Rahdeese Alcutt, just lately sounded the alarm about the issue, which may disrupt the service’s telecommunication networks, particularly its old-school landlines. “As an organization, AT&T skilled greater than 10,400 copper theft incidents, with a weekly common of 200 incidents reported nationwide on the finish of 2025. Losses for 2025 exceeded $82 million,” he wrote in a weblog submit.
The issue is especially dangerous in California, the place AT&T has been required to take care of its conventional copper-based landlines to make sure residents dwelling in rural and distant areas stay related. “In California alone, we skilled greater than 7,300 copper theft incidents in 2025, with losses exceeding $54 million,” Alcutt mentioned.
The issue has grow to be “systemic” to the purpose that AT&T is struggling to maintain up. “We are able to’t restore injury as quick because it occurs,” he says. “Some injury goes undetected for weeks or months.
“Many of those cases of copper theft don’t seem like one-off, opportunistic acts. We’re seeing clear proof of organized crime, equivalent to the usage of heavy equipment and coordinated thefts on the identical strains on the similar time,” he provides.
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The surge in thefts comes as the worth of copper rose sharply final 12 months. AT&T has additionally beforehand warned that criminals will goal fiber-optic cabling, complicated it for copper wiring. In response, Alcutt is asking the general public to contact AT&T International Safety at 1-888-871-2622 or native regulation enforcement in the event that they see suspicious exercise round telecom gear. AT&T has even been providing rewards of $10,000 and $20,000 for details about the culprits.
Over the long term, AT&T has been working to retire its copper networks throughout the US by the top of 2029, besides in California. Final month, the Federal Communications Fee additionally adopted new guidelines meant to assist corporations velocity up their transition away from copper networks. “5% of households in the US have a legacy copper cellphone service, with many additionally having an energetic cell service,” the fee says.
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However the nonprofit Public Information fears the FCC’s order dangers disconnecting “thousands and thousands of aged individuals or individuals with disabilities” who nonetheless depend on conventional landlines, together with for his or her medical gear.
“To speed up the transition, the Order relaxes or eliminates a number of safeguards put in place by earlier administrations to make sure that no American or small enterprise with cellphone service loses entry to 911 or different vital voice companies,” the group says. “For instance, cellphone corporations looking for to interchange rural copper strains with new merchandise will now not want to offer engineering exams to show the alternate options work in addition to present strains.”
Nonetheless, the FCC says, “When an organization decides to utterly discontinue a service, it should notify its prospects and get FCC permission earlier than turning off the service. When a phone firm merely stops providing an older voice service to new prospects, present prospects will proceed to obtain that service till they now not need it.”
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I have been a journalist for over 15 years. I received my begin as a faculties and cities reporter in Kansas Metropolis and joined PCMag in 2017, the place I cowl satellite tv for pc web companies, cybersecurity, PC {hardware}, and extra. I am at the moment primarily based in San Francisco, however beforehand spent over 5 years in China, masking the nation’s expertise sector.
Since 2020, I’ve coated the launch and explosive progress of SpaceX’s Starlink satellite tv for pc web service, writing 600+ tales on availability and have launches, but additionally the regulatory battles over the growth of satellite tv for pc constellations, fights with rival suppliers like AST SpaceMobile and Amazon, and the trouble to develop into satellite-based cell service. I’ve combed by way of FCC filings for the newest information and pushed to distant corners of California to check Starlink’s mobile service.
I additionally cowl cyber threats, from ransomware gangs to the emergence of AI-based malware. Earlier this 12 months, the FTC compelled Avast to pay customers $16.5 million for secretly harvesting and promoting their private info to third-party shoppers, as revealed in my joint investigation with Motherboard.
I additionally cowl the PC graphics card market. Pandemic-era shortages led me to camp out in entrance of a Finest Purchase to get an RTX 3000. I am now following how President Trump’s tariffs will have an effect on the trade. I am all the time desperate to be taught extra, so please bounce within the feedback with suggestions and ship me suggestions.
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