Some AT&T customers in South Dallas are losing their phone and internet service for days at a time, and the company says it’s being caused by thieves stealing copper wire.
One of the affected neighborhoods is Green Hill Road in South Oak Cliff, where frustrated neighbors say service blackouts have become a constant headache.
Today Reginald Terry can sit back and watch TV in his living room, but for the last few months, he said that hasn’t been a guarantee.
“It would just go out,” Terry said. “We didn’t understand why it was going out. It would just go out.”
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Terry told NBC 5 that his AT&T internet has been going offline for days since the spring, and his neighbors have been dealing with the same issue.
He said the company’s customer service reps would blame the outages on storms even during weeks of calm weather.
Terry told NBC that he discovered the real issue when he recently encountered an AT&T technician working on the street.
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“He said I’m going to tell you the truth, they’re stealing the copper off the wires, off the lines,” Terry said. “He said we can’t catch who’s doing it.”
“We’re working as quickly as possible to restore home phone and internet service to affected customers in South Dallas following a recent copper cable theft,” an AT&T spokesperson told NBC 5.
“Theft and vandalism of critical communications infrastructure are serious matters that disrupt essential services for our customers, public safety, and the community at large, and we’re actively working with local law enforcement as they investigate to find those responsible.”
“It’s upsetting, it’s very upsetting,” Terry said.
He is concerned that thieves have been knocking out essential services to his neighborhood. Terry said that his son has had to stop working from home since the outages began.
“It controls my alarm system, it controls, Wi-Fi controls everything in the house basically,” said Terry. “So when it goes down, you can’t watch TV, the alarm system doesn’t work, you can’t use the computer.”
For now, Terry and his neighbors have been trying to adapt to the outages, sometimes listening to Texas Rangers games on the radio while they wait for the internet to come back on.
But they said the company and police needed to do more to find those responsible.
“We’re paying for a service that we’re not receiving, basically,” said Terry. “I know they can’t control thieves stealing their copper, but they’re the provider, and we want them to come up with a solution to this.”
NBC 5 reached out to Dallas police, asking for a response to neighbors' concerns that they should take more action to address the copper wire thefts. The department responded and said they are aware of cases of metal theft, including copper theft, and all cases are investigated thoroughly.
Dallas Police encourage residents and businesses to report all suspicious activity and crimes to law enforcement.
