Chonteduddley, a South Los Angeles resident, used the regular 92-year-old phone for months and was unable to get his mother’s Mable Bush.
Bush, who lives in South Los Angeles near the Englewood border, has held the same number as AT&T for almost 50 years. However, sometime in September 2024, her landline phone stopped working. Dudley, 52, called the office.
Although the service has recently recovered, Bush’s family has spent months worried by both landlines who are obsessed with warning services for women’s lives.
For eight months, Dudley spoke to her mother through the caregiver’s cell phone.
She said this wasn’t the first time that service has declined.
“It’s on again,” Dudley said. “If your phone and camera are down, there’s no way to communicate with mom. I had this problem before, but it wasn’t that long.”
Dudley, who reached out to ABC7 on your side, said that a reporter called the company on her behalf. The technician arrived at his mother’s house the next day and repaired the fixed cable within a few hours.
Dudley says her landline and neighbourhood streetlights were also regularly released due to theft of copper wires, but she believes it’s only a matter of time before the matter resurfaces for her mother.
“My mother’s neighbor, who lives across the street, had her phone call too. I’ve had a few people from my church calling Compton and South Los Angeles,” Dudley said.
Cora Brown, 72, said the Times had been down since September 2024. Brown lived with her husband in South LA near Compton, but stopped paying phone bills about three months before the landline phone stopped working due to the theft of copper wire.
“I don’t even remember how many times I called AT&T. I called, called, called, called, called,” Brown said. She said the last few times she didn’t answer. “And they’re still sending bills.”
Brown received his bill on May 3rd for $537.38.
“I’m tired of them,” Brown said. “We’re considering switching.”
Dudley said bills were also piled up while her mother’s landline phone was down. Bush has been paying automobiles for a while and paid $124 a month for an inoperable landline. Dudley said he removed his mother from car wages and that AT&T sent a gift card to compensate for the overpayment.
An AT&T spokesman said copper thefts have been on the rise recently in Southern L.A., with almost 300,000 residents, according to the 2021 urban plan. AT&T’s outage website has reported multiple landlines due to cable damage, some have missed scheduled repair dates.
“Theft and vandalism of critical communication infrastructure is a serious problem that disrupts customers, public safety and services essential to the entire community. This is an increasing number of issues in the region and we are working closely with public safety on our shared interest in combating theft of copper in Los Angeles,” AT&T said in a statement. “We understand how annoyed copper theft can be for our customers, and that’s not an acceptable customer experience. We apologize for the inconvenience.”
In 2024, LA City Council formed a task force in collaboration with the Los Angeles Police Department and the Street Lighting Bureau to curb theft of copper wire from utility services. A total of 82 people have been arrested and more than 2,000 pounds of stolen copper wire have been recovered.
Before the task force, neighbours in Boyle Heights, Lincoln Heights and El Sereno saw streetlights stripping copper wires and leaving multiple blocks in the darkness. City politicians estimated the repair costs to exceed $17 million.
Copper wires are expensive and difficult to procure, according to a spokesman.
“Historically, copper theft has been a big problem in South Los Angeles,” he said. “We offer the affected people an advance product of AT&T phones that rely on fiber wireless networks, which is difficult to steal.”
According to AT&T, AT&T’s fiber optic network, installed underground at AT&T, provides internet service via light waves using thin bundled glass fibers.
Verizon’s Frontier Network provided similar fiber optic services to Hacienda Heights residents after copper wire burglars tampered with landlines last year.
Customers like Dudley say they are not interested in wireless technology.
“There were suggestions people came up with, like setting up cameras to find people stealing copper,” Dudley said. “It doesn’t seem like AT&T is trying to come up with a solution because they want to get rid of landlines, so they keep on raising prices and limping about doing repairs.”
Regina Costa, communications policy director for Utility Reform Network, a consumer advocacy organization focusing on California’s utility services, reflects Dudley’s sentiment.
“People want landlines,” Costa said. “It’s ridiculous to think that service repairs will take time for customers. But this is part of AT&T’s game plan to cut down on the overall service in California to target the most profitable sector.”
AT&T submitted an application to the California Public Utilities Commission last year, working to remove its obligation as a last resort. According to AT&T, the company must provide basic telephone services (generally landline services) to customers who request it in certain areas. The committee rejected the request.
“The committee is trying to change the rules for last resort airlines, but during that time, AT&T went to Congress and tried to get them to do that,” Costa said. “They operate invoice AB 470 that eliminates their obligation to provide these services to their customers.”
AT&T did not comment on its efforts to eliminate landline services.
Costa said landlines are essential during natural disasters. As AARP reports, advances in mobile phones and GPS technology, as well as other factors, have improved support for mobile phones 911. But when a storm or fire knocks out electricity, the copper landline phone continues to function.
“I’m out in the forests of Sonoma County. One of the fires in 2020 is within a mile of this. If the power is turned off, then anyone can do it. [smartphone] Without a copper landline, we’ll lose our services,” she said. And there are thousands of Californians who have experienced the same thing. ”
For Dudley, when it comes to her mother, the landline provides a sense of security.
“In the ’80s or ’90s, there are people who don’t have anyone defending them. Without phone service, you can stop by and see,” she said. “But what happens if the person falls in the middle of the night? What happens if the house is set on fire? Or a gas leak. That’s very dangerous.”
AT&T offers a reward of up to $5,000 for certain details that lead to the arrest and conviction of copper cables stolen from AT&T in the Los Angeles area. Tips can also be called AT&T Global Security and Investigation at (800) 807-4205.
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