Contractors, not AT&T, causing area phone outages

Graham has seen its fair share of problems when it comes to connection issues with AT&T, but the cause of these problems lies with those severing the lines, and not AT&T, Judge John Bullock said at the Graham City Council meeting Thursday. The Nortex Regional Planning Commission, a voluntary association of local governments in North Texas, held an executive directors’ meeting this month and discussed with AT&T representatives some of the problems that have affected not only Young County but seven other counties in the area. At the meeting were AT&T representatives, CSEC (Commission on State Emergency Communications) members, Texas legislators and members of Nortex. “The affected counties were Archer, Baylor, Montague, Clay, Hardeman, Jack and Young counties in those severs,” Bullock said at the council meeting. “These outages, they were caused by contractors or sub-contractors working for BNSF Railroad or TxDOT and those contractors or sub-contractors failed to notify 811 or digtest, which are our utility location services, and they are mandated to do that before they do those digs or trenches or bores.” For the rest of this story, subscribe to our print or online edition.