Update: Day 7 Telecom Crisis on Linkwood Road

By C. Henry Adams

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Telecommunication Crisis on Linkwood Road

Update: Saturday Oct. 6th 2012 Telecom Crisis on Linkwood Rd

Day 4 : Telecom Crisis on Linkwood Road

Day 5: Telecom Crisis on Linkwood Road

Day 6: Telecom Crisis on Linkwood Road

Day 7: Telecom Crisis on Linkwood Road


Its Day 7 of the Telecommunications Crisis on Linkwood Road in Atlanta, Georgia and the status has not officially changed, "NO PHONE SERVICE".  

The number of restored customers is unknown at this time. 
But, it is obvious that a number of neighbors without service in the communities surrounding this incident are not happy.

Here is what we know today:

1)  Friday Morning roughly around 4:00 am EST and 9:00 am EST, thieves cut down and removed at least two sections of telephone trunk line which consist of many customers phone connections.

2) Late Friday, Atlanta City Councilman C. T. Martin jumps into action to contact AT&T Officials.

3) Armed Security Guards protected AT&T Technicians.

4) AT&T dispatched at least two AT&T Technicians to replace and hang the missing telephone trunk line Friday, October 5th 2012, but this line was not cross connected to re-establish service.

5) AT&T Technicians on the scene Friday estimated that 2000 customers possibly lost service.

6) Saturday, October 6th and Sunday, October 7th 2012 no AT&T Technicians were observed working on the incident site.

7) Monday, October 8th 2012 (Columbus Day), AT&T dispatched Technicians to work on the incident. It appears that this outage is a typical work day for AT&T employees.

8) On Monday, Deidra Dukes (Anchor/ Reporter) of Fox 5 News (Channel 5) contacted us and came out to interview customers without telephone service.

9) Ms. Dukes mentioned that AT&T estimated the outage to be upwards of 3000 customers without service or more.

10)  Customers without service possibly lost the following:

a) Analog Phone Service
b) Alarm System & Monitoring Service
c) Personal Emergency Alert Service
d) Dial-up Internet Modem Service
e) DSL Internet Service
f) The ability to send and receive fax messages
g) Hearing Impaired Phone Service
h) Video Service
i) Ability to contact 911
j) Tele-medicine Service

11) Monday October 8th 2012, sporadic service was restored to some AT&T Customers while others reported signs of cross telephone line signals.  The number of restored customers is unknown.

12) Tuesday, October 9th 2012, AT&T Technicians resume working on outage after stopping the previous day.

13)  Tuesday, the Atlanta Police Department receive a theft report.

14)  Tuesday night, a theft of telephone trunk line wires occurred once again, according to AT&T.

15) Wednesday evening October 10th, 2012,  Channel 2 (WSBTV - Cox Communications) sent Eric Phillips (Reporter) to get the story.  Also, Channel 11 (WXIA - Gannett) sent their Crime Investigative Reporter to get the story as well.

16)  Customers reviewed AT&T Spokesperson on local broadcast, but did not hear from from said Executive Officers of AT&T living in Atlanta area regarding this matter.

17) Residents would like all customers affected by the outage to receive an apology, full credit for services interrupted.

18) Poor communications by AT&T to inform customers of an outage utilizing other broadcast sources was observed.

Did I forget anything?

19) The outage affected Elderly Homeowners, who may or may not own cellular phones to communicate.

20) The outage affected the Handicap.

21) The outage affected Home-based Businesses.

22) The outage affected students who utilized the Internet to study and research.  The range is from Elementary School to Graduate School.

23) The outage affected those individuals who are bedridden and require medical assistant on a daily basis while living in their homes.

24) A Business Continuity Plan and Disaster Recovery Plan should be created by the communities to better defend against future occurrences where incidents of large magnitudes occur.

25) The community also needs to increase vigilance and receive training in disaster relief to help the authorities make their neighborhoods a safer place to live.

Alright, I will stop here.  Oh!  My sincerest apology to the local media.  We are grateful and thankful for the show of support regarding this story.

Please feel free to comment, thanks.








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