Phones and internet went dark across much of Barstow early Thursday after a fiber optic cable was severed near B and Main streets, knocking out Verizon and Frontier service for residents and even cutting off City Hall's own telephone lines. The damage was discovered at approximately 2:30 a.m., and vandalism is suspected as a possible cause, though that has not been confirmed.
According to VVNG, the damage disrupted Verizon and Frontier communication services across much of Barstow early Thursday, November 5, affecting both everyday residents and the city's own government offices. The Victorville Daily Press similarly reported that city officials described a widespread communications disruption across the Barstow area, with the fiber line damaged at B and Main streets.
The outage didn't just hit phone lines. The same VVNG report notes that the disruption affected the majority of the city and temporarily limited the city's ability to access and communicate through its own social media platforms — an ironic wrinkle for a municipal government trying to keep residents informed about an outage it could barely announce.
Conflicting Word on 911 Access
Exactly how the outage affected emergency lines depends on which notice you read. The city told VVNG that, despite the broader communications disruption, 911 emergency services remained fully operational. But a separate notice posted by the City of Barstow described a Frontier fiber cut between Victorville and Adelanto that was impacting both 911 and non-emergency phone lines for the Barstow Police Department Dispatch Center and other area emergency service centers. It's not clear from available city records how these two descriptions of the outage's reach relate to one another, or whether they refer to the same incident timeline.
The city's notice went on to say that all phone services for Barstow Police Dispatch were back up. In the meantime, the city had directed residents to alternate contact methods, telling the public they could reach emergency services by calling 911 or reach Barstow Police Dispatch's non-emergency line at 760-256-2211. During the height of the disruption, the city had also listed 760-678-2592 as an emergency contact number for Barstow Police Dispatch.
Repair Teams Notified, Timeline Uncertain
Verizon and Frontier technical teams were notified and were working to resolve the issue, the city said, according to VVNG's report. At the time officials made their announcement, repairs were estimated to be completed late Thursday afternoon, though officials cautioned that restoration times could vary.
The Barstow outage follows a similar episode roughly a week earlier in the Morongo Basin, where a Verizon spokesperson said vandals cut multiple fiber cables, causing service interruptions for customers across the region, according to Z107.7 FM. That outage, first reported the morning of October 30, left thousands of local customers and businesses without internet for four days before some service was restored late on November 1. Verizon offered a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible.
Barstow Has Seen Cable Cutting Before
Fiber sabotage isn't unheard of in Barstow itself. Just under a year earlier, on November 24, 2025, police responded to a report of two people cutting fiber optic cables in an alley north of the 1100 block of E. Main Street, VVNG reported. Officers found approximately 300 feet of cut cable, with damage estimated to exceed $20,000.
Whether this week's damage in Barstow traces back to deliberate vandalism remains unconfirmed, and no cause or responsible party had been established as of the city's latest statement. For now, residents whose phone and internet service dropped out are left waiting on the same two carriers, Verizon and Frontier, to finish the repairs.
