October 30, 2025
How Industry, Law Enforcement, and Government Are Fighting Copper Theft Together
Fact: A single cut to a communications line can result in a patient experiencing a medical emergency not being able to reach their doctor. It can mean failing grades because homework can’t get done. It can cause frustrating flight delays and cancellations at airports for millions of travelers trying to get home to their families. And for Americans dealing with wildfires and other disasters, it can literally mean the difference between life and death.
America’s broadband providers invest billions of dollars every year to maintain and expand communications infrastructure that supports our economy and the public safety, healthcare, education, energy, and transportation sectors. But the growing threat of copper theft and vandalism is leading to daily network disruptions that impact millions of people and result in costly repairs.
To draw attention to this growing problem, we and other industry leaders hosted a summit to bring together leaders from industry, law enforcement, and government in Los Angeles – the largest hot spot for copper theft and vandalism incidents in the U.S. –to discuss solutions. Based on our latest white paper, we showed the number of incidents of intentional theft or sabotage against communications infrastructure almost doubled within a six month period from 5,770 to 9,770. Another new study found these service outages that cut off consumers from commerce, education, healthcare, and public safety translate to tens and hundreds of millions of dollars in economic losses to society.
At USTelecom’s recent Investment Forum, broadband industry leaders spoke more about the problem of copper theft:
There are multiple factors fueling this crisis:
- Criminals typically cut communications lines, burn them to remove the sheathing to reveal the copper, and then sell the copper to scrap metal dealers.
- With the cost of copper rising exponentially each year, its demand continues to grow faster than supply. This incentivizes thieves even further and makes it more likely some scrap metal dealers will accept copper without confirming its origin in times of high demand.
- The lack of oversight and enforcement emboldens bad actors to continue their criminal activity.
- In the search for copper, fiber-optic networks and other critical infrastructure including utility poles, electric grids, and water lines also become collateral damage.
The good news is many state and local jurisdictions understand the urgency needed to address this problem and are adopting new laws to disrupt this illicit market and bring bad actors to justice.
At the summit in Los Angeles, California Attorney General Rob Bonta discussed his ongoing efforts to engage industry and other community stakeholders to find collaborative solutions. And just this past month, Governor Newsom helped strengthen California’s fight against copper theft by signing into law AB 476, which requires junk dealers and recyclers to keep more detailed records and verify the identity of sellers. The law also expands the list of protected infrastructure materials and increases penalties for possessing stolen metal. Other states like Minnesota and Kentucky have enacted helpful laws that require licenses to sell scrap metal to dealers and enhance felony penalties for damaging communications infrastructure. And local initiatives in Louisville have already led to arrests and recovery of stolen materials.
While these state and local initiatives are important steps in deterring criminal activity, we need action at the federal level to make meaningful progress. FCC Commissioner Olivia Trusty made this point clear in her remarks, drawing from her recent op-ed urging Congress to make vandalism of private networks a federal crime.
Fortunately, H.R. 2784 – the Stopping the Theft and Destruction of Broadband Act of 2025 – sets out to do just that by expanding existing protections to critical infrastructure to include both privately and publicly owned broadband networks. If enacted, this legislation will serve as a key tool in weakening copper theft operations throughout the country. Congress should move quickly to get it across the finish line.
Protecting broadband infrastructure demands collaboration across all sectors – from law enforcement and government to business and community leaders at all levels – and this is exactly what the summit was meant to kick start. Our industry is committed to remaining engaged with our private and public partners in this fight. Our ability to keep America’s networks secure and our communities connected depends on it.