Palmerton Telephone Company customers were experiencing call completion issues early this morning after vandals cut a fiber cable that knocked all the circuits down near the intersection of routes 248 and 873.

Jeff Lutz, superintendent of engineering, Palmerton Telephone Company, said that during the early morning hours, a fiber cable was cut which took all the circuits down as part of a failed copper theft.As a result, Lutz said calls going south of Palmerton are affected, while most calls coming north were working."Some people can call out, but they won't receive calls in," Lutz said. "It's a real headache."Lutz said someone climbed the poles at the railroad tracks near the cantilever along Route 248 to cut the fiber cable down."Ninety percent of the calls both ways are affected; 911 does work all over," he said. "For the most part this is pretty serious."Lutz said the construction crew is on site and "We're waiting for permission from the Norfolk Southern Railroad for access to do the restoration.""They'll replace what's been missing and re-splice, and everything will come back up," he said.State police are investigating, Lutz said.