Verizon in Los Angeles and Charter in North Carolina Hit by Network Vandalism

WASHINGTON, Oct. 14, 2025 – Cable vandalism continues to wreak havoc on major internet service providers and expose vulnerabilities in U.S. broadband infrastructure.

Verizon customers in Los Angeles and Charter Spectrum customers in Moore County, North Carolina, experienced widespread outages over the weekend.

According to the Los Angeles Times, vandals cut multiple fiber-optic cables early Friday, leading to service disruptions that stretched into the afternoon. Verizon confirmed the outages were caused by vandalism but did not disclose how many customers were affected or provide an estimated time for repairs.

In North Carolina, Charter Spectrum reported a service outage Sunday after a suspended fiber-optic cable was severed in two places and fell to the ground in Moore County, The Pilot reported.

Charter notified customers about the outage around 4 a.m. Sunday, but reports of intermittent disruptions began a day earlier. Much of Moore County, which has a population of about 108,000 — lost television, internet and phone service for most of the day. The affected areas included Pinehurst, Southern Pines, Foxfire and Seven Lakes.

Charter Spectrum officials said the damage was caused by “malicious vandalism.”

Communications industry leaders have started an initiative to prevent and inform on the severity of cable cuts. Charter is a member of the Strategic Threat Response & Infrastructure Knowledge Exchange.