South LA customers still without landline service. 7 On Your Side demands answers from AT&T.

SOUTH LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- While many people have given up their landlines for cellphone service, for many others, landlines remain a critical lifeline to the outside world.

For months, 7 On Your Side Investigates has been looking into the growing problem of non-working landlines across the Los Angeles area.

Maria Ramirez says she feels solitary and trapped without her phone service. It's been off for months.

"I kept calling everywhere, and you just can't get assistance from anywhere," her daughter, Lucia Capetillo Diaz, said.

Capetillo Diaz says she called AT&T several times and was told what many others have been told -- the outages are all due to copper wire theft in the area, and there is no timetable for when they can get service restored. She says it puts her family in a difficult situation.

"My dad has a cellphone, flip phone, but if my mom needs to get a hold of him, there's no way, or if she needs to get a hold of us, there's no way," Capetillo Diaz said. "If she has an emergency, both of them have medical conditions, and there's just no way for them to communicate with anybody."

7 On Your Side Investigates has received dozens of emails and phone calls from people going through the same situation.

RELATED: 7 On Your Side helps 95-year-old woman get her phone service restored after 2 months without it

The 95-year-old went without phone service for two months. AT&T said it was going to take a while after copper wires were stolen, but after a call from 7 On Your Side, service was restored in two days.

"When I saw your story, I said, 'I know I'm going to get somewhere here," Capetillo Diaz said.

In some cases, AT&T was able to restore service once 7 On Your Side Investigates got involved.

"Things seemed to be working pretty good after that, but before then, it was rough," said Mabel Bush.

After our recent report about a 95-year-old woman who lost the landline service she relies on, more than a dozen people contacted ABC7, saying they're in the same boat.

Bush was experiencing the same problem, and AT&T restored her landline service within two days after we got involved. But a short time later, her service stopped and was intermittent.

"Sometimes it sort of fades away," Bush said.

Bush's daughter is trying to deal with the outage again. She says the concern is that her mother's medical alert system doesn't work without a landline.

"The reality is, if we have an earthquake, and all of a sudden her line goes out, or if she falls, or if anything happens where she needs to get emergency medical assistance, that is not an option becayse she can't hit that button," Bush's daughter, Shonte Dudley said.

The California Public Utilities Commission is responsible for regulating telephone companies. After our inquiries, the commission said:

"Traditional wireline telephone service carriers, such as AT&T, are required to resolve the majority of outages within 24 hours. AT&T has repeatedly failed to meet this requirement. The CPUC ordered AT&T to submit a Corrective Action Plan outlining steps the company will take to improve its ability to timely restore service."

Meanwhile, some people say they aren't getting service, but they are still being billed.

Maria Ramirez showed Eyewitness News her bill, and it shows she is being charged $42.50 a month.

"We're paying for a service, and if you're not delivering, then I can't pay for something that's not being delivered ... as simple as that. So, I think that's the aggravation here," Capetillo Diaz said.

SEE ALSO: Copper wire thefts are leaving neighborhoods in the dark. Here's what LAPD is doing to stop it

ABC7 looks into what's being done to combat copper wire theft and what happens to the stolen material.

Most of the people reaching out to 7 On Your Side Investigates live in and around South Los Angeles.

"You know the areas that have outages. I just want AT&T to be proactive," said L.A. County Supervisor Holly Mitchell, who represents the area. "I know copper theft is a mass problem. We've addressed it, attempted to address it, at the county level. The city has done the same. My ask of AT&T is, when you know you have customers who have been out of services for weeks and months, how can you charge them for services that they've not been able to take advantage of?

The CPUC says AT&T is designated as the Carrier of Last Resort in many parts of the state, and that obligates the company to provide telephone service to any potential customer in its service territory. AT&T, however, is trying to move away from copper line technology to fiber-optic and wireless technology.

7 On Your Side Investigates has contacted AT&T numerous times, and so far, they have declined to do any on-camera interviews.

After airing several stories about residents without landline service, AT&T said it plans to hold a news conference on Thursday to talk about copper theft and the issues customers are facing.