When Americans talk about infrastructure, they usually think about roads, bridges and power lines. But in today’s digital age, communications networks are every bit as essential.
Networks are critical infrastructure, carrying the lifeblood of our economy and daily life. When they go down, the consequences ripple far beyond households and businesses. Outages disrupt hospitals delivering patient care, airports managing flights, banks processing transactions and first responders answering emergency calls. Yet these networks are increasingly under attack, not from foreign adversaries or cybercriminals alone, but from an old and familiar threat: vandalism. In short, when broadband is attacked, America itself is put at risk.
Across the country, we have seen troubling reports of individuals intentionally damaging communications infrastructure, cutting broadband lines, sabotaging wireless towers and destroying essential equipment. Sometimes these vandals are motivated by ideology or mischief. More often, they are motivated by money. In search of copper that can be sold as scrap, criminals are cutting into communications lines, often severing fiber in the process. The irony is striking: in chasing a quick payout from outdated cables, vandals cripple the far more vital infrastructure that carries America’s 911 calls, broadband connections and wireless signals.
The scope of the problem
The scope of the problem is staggering. According to a recent industry report, there were at least 5,770 reported incidents of targeted theft and vandalism against communications networks in just last seven months of 2024, disrupting internet service for over 1.5 million Americans and causing millions of dollars in damage.
These are not harmless pranks. They are serious crimes that disrupt emergency services, cut off hospitals from patients and leave entire communities in the dark. They threaten public safety, jeopardize national security and impose millions of dollars in costs on providers who must repair the damage. Worst of all, they delay the progress we are making to close the digital divide.
Vandalism of our communications infrastructure is not a partisan issue. It is a public safety issue, an economic issue, a national security issue and an American issue. That is why I welcome the efforts of Congress to criminalize the willful destruction of private as well as public communications facilities. Federal legislation that protects privately-owned networks from these attacks is overdue, and I applaud those in Congress who are leading the charge.
But there is another reason this issue matters deeply to me as a Commissioner at the Federal Communications Commission. Vandalism directly undermines the FCC’s Build America agenda. Our mission is to expand broadband to every corner of this country, from urban, metropolitan areas to the most remote rural communities. Congress has entrusted billions of dollars to support this effort. Yet every time a fiber line is cut in pursuit of scrap metal, it delays progress, diverts resources and sows doubt about the reliability of the networks we are working so hard to build.
Think of the small town where broadband finally arrives after years of waiting, only to have service interrupted because someone chose to rip out copper and cut the fiber with it. Or the rural hospital that relies on a microwave link to connect patients to doctors hundreds of miles away, only to lose that connection because vandals damaged a tower. These are not hypothetical scenarios, they are happening in communities across the country.
Responsibility and jurisdiction
To be clear, the FCC does not have jurisdiction over criminal law in this area. That responsibility lies with Congress, state legislatures and law enforcement agencies. But we have a responsibility to speak out when actions threaten the success of our national communications agenda. The FCC can work with providers to track outages, coordinate with state and federal partners, and highlight the costs of these attacks. And we can remind the public that infrastructure vandalism is not just an attack on a company’s property, it is an attack on every American who depends on a dial tone, a broadband connection or a wireless signal.
As Republicans, we believe in limited government, but we also believe in the rule of law and the importance of protecting critical infrastructure. I support Congress amending the U.S. Code so that willful acts against private communications networks, not just facilities operated by the government, are explicitly criminalized at the federal level. While existing statutes reach government-targeted attacks, a gap remains in protecting the vast array of privately-owned but publicly-essential networks that carry the nation’s 911 calls, broadband traffic and wireless signals. Closing this gap will ensure that vandals cannot exploit outdated distinctions in the law and that accountability is clear when America’s vital communications infrastructure is attacked.
Our Build America agenda is about more than laying fiber or erecting towers. It is about ensuring that every American can trust the networks that carry their voices, their data and their livelihoods. That goal cannot be achieved if vandals are allowed to compromise our progress with impunity.
The bottom line is simple: if we are serious about connecting America, we must be serious about protecting the infrastructure that makes those connections possible. Congress is right to act, and the FCC stands ready to do its part. Together, we can make sure that America’s communications networks are not only the fastest and most widely available in the world, but also the most secure.
Olivia Trusty was nominated to serve as a Commissioner of the FCC by President Donald J. Trump. She was confirmed by the United States Senate in June 2025.
Op-eds from industry experts, analysts or our editorial staff are opinion pieces that do not represent the opinions of Fierce Network.