Vandals cut fiber-optic lines, causing outage for Spectrum Internet subscribers

Over the past two decades, copper theft has emerged as a major problem in industries spanning plumbing, telephone and Internet connectivity, and others relying on the material, which is a good conductor of electricity and once sold at low prices. In 2008, the FBI warned that copper theft threatened the entire US infrastructure. In earlier decades, copper was widely used, in part because of its relatively low price. As copper prices rose, thieves began stealing it. The abundance of the metal in remote and unsurveilled environments scattered all around the country made it a tempting target for thieves.

In 2015, AT&T reported that the cutting of a 1,200-foot run of fiber line disrupted service, requiring 192 lines to be re-fused. AT&T didn’t say whether the people responsible simply wanted to disrupt AT&T services or if they mistakenly believed there was copper in the infrastructure they damaged.

Last year, AT&T said it was scrapping its copper-based networks and replacing them with fiber ones. The company cited multiple reasons, including the ongoing theft of the metal lines.

Besides offering the $25,000 reward, Spectrum also said it’s working with police to apprehend the suspects behind the most recent incident of vandalism.

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