AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon are finding themselves on the same side again, this time over two separate problems that could affect both networks and customers. One issue is old-fashioned physical damage like copper theft and fiber cuts. The other is a security flaw tied to the long-running email-to-text feature used by carriers.
According to Light Reading, the three carriers have joined the cable industry’s STRIKE initiative, which is focused on fighting theft and vandalism aimed at communications infrastructure.
The report says 18,327 incidents were reported nationwide in 2025, affecting about 11.8 million customers, and the total was up about 59% year over year. AT&T said it responded to about 1,000 incidents per month in 2025, while T-Mobile said its monthly incidents rose from about 100 in 2025 to more than 200 so far in 2026.
At the same time, a UC San Diego research paper found that email-to-text gateways could be abused to make fake texts appear more trustworthy, even allowing messages to be inserted into existing conversations in some cases.
The researchers said the issue affected both iPhone and Android devices and involved carriers including AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, and Google Fi. The paper did not say the flaw had been exploited in the wild, but it confirmed the attacks worked in testing.
Verizon has already said it is shutting down its legacy email-to-text service, with the process expected to be completed by March 31, 2027. Taken together, the two stories show why carriers are moving faster on both physical security and older messaging systems that were never designed for today’s threat landscape.
Source: Light Reading, UC San Diego research paper