Multiple residents of South Dallas are without phone or internet service due to an ongoing outage that has left operations at one local business crippled.
AT&T currently reports a service outage persisting in the 75210 ZIP code of South Dallas. A map of the outage shows that it encompasses Mill City and other nearby neighborhoods.
The outage has persisted over a week, with some having experienced disruptions in service since Christmas, according to The Dallas Morning News. It has impacted residents’ day-to-day activities as well as local businesses.
Mark Walker Jr., owner of Walker Auto Body & Frame Shop, located on South Second Avenue, told the DMN that his business has decreased, given most of his business starts on the phone. He has experienced disruption since Christmas and described the situation as an “emergency state.”
“I’m in the accident business,” said Walker. “I get accidents happen, but this is impacting my livelihood.”
Walker also said that the issue has occurred at other times, and he has pushed for better connectivity in the area.
“It’s not just us,” said Walker, per DMN. “We care about the community. It’s fixing cars but also the people involved and the greater impact on the neighborhood.”
Fred Conwright, owner of Two Podners Restaurant, said that the outage has also impacted his business because he cannot accept credit card payments. He had to switch to using a hotspot to compensate for lost service. He had also been reaching out to local officials to raise awareness of the issue after being told that service might not be fully restored for another two to three weeks.
“I had to go through so many channels to get these results,” said Conwright, per DMN. “If this happened in other parts of the city, the response would have been quicker. South Dallas needs to draw the same attention that other parts get when there’s issues.”
AT&T has since stated that they are working to fix the issue.
“We are working as quickly as possible to restore home phone and internet service in a southern Dallas neighborhood after it was disrupted by recent copper thefts,” read a statement by the company, per the DMN. “We are working with city leaders and local law enforcement, who are investigating to find those responsible.”
Copper thieves appear to have been targeting providers for some time. AT&T had worked to restore services for hundreds of Oak Cliff after a theft last April, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
