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Dropped AT&T Phone Calls Frustrate Old Saybrook Residents

Some Old Saybrook residents who live in the east part of town said they’ve been dealing with dropped calls and choppy data for months and are pointing their fingers at AT&T. 

"It's still not fixed. It keeps happening over and over,” Old Saybrook resident Ed Freeman said. He works from home and relies on his AT&T-serviced phone for both calls and Internet. 

“I can't download, I can’t work on my computer, I try to call clients and it gets dropped,” Freeman said. “It’s problematic.” 

It’s been an issue since April, Freeman said, adding he’s called the company three times and has gotten a partial credit, but no straight answer about what went wrong. 

"One day you might be good the next day is horrible again,” Freeman said. 

He’s not alone. Other business owners tell NBC Connecticut they’re also experiencing dropped calls and glitches with payment applications that rely on phone data. 

Old Saybrook Firefighter Pat Hanley said he’s spoken with AT&T customer service and technical support and wonders why he’s paying for a service he’s not getting. 

He said AT&T told him the equipment on the tower was degraded. 

Former Old Saybrook Fire Chief J.T. Dunn is experiencing it, too. His concern is a call not going through if someone is on the water or needs to call 911. 

AT&T Senior Public Relations Manager for New England, Karen Twomey, said in a statement “Our equipment continues to support customers and first responders in East Old Saybrook. We are aware some customers may be experiencing intermittent issues and are currently working with the utility that owns this cell site to make improvements to our network in this area.” 

NBC Connecticut was told that once AT&T was aware of complaints about the issue and is working fix it as quickly as possible. That includes adjusting the antennae on a tower in east Old Saybrook along the Connecticut River. 

Mitch Gross, a spokesperson for Eversource, confirmed that Eversource owns that tower and said, “We don’t have a record of AT&T contacting us however we’re ready to go right to work with them as soon as we hear from them. We are always ready to work with any telecom companies or other utilities that have equipment on our infrastructure.” 

There are times Eversource cannot cut power, if that’s necessary, because of overall customer demand, Gross added.

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