AT&T’s attempt to abandon traditional landline customers in rural California failed last year, when state regulators unanimously rebuffed the company’s effort to withdraw.
Now it’s trying again.
The telecommunications company is pursuing two avenues that could end its status as a so-called carrier of last resort, which requires it to provide a traditional copper-wire landline to anyone who requests one. One route would require pushing a bill through the legislature. The other would entail persuading the California Public Utilities Commission to reconsider last year’s 5-0 ruling.
When the commissioners rejected AT&T’s request last year, they agreed to revisit and update their carrier-of-last-resort requirements, which were established in 1994, before the rise of cell phones and voice-over-internet phones.
Last week, the commission completed a series of public hearings around the state on those updates. It will continue collecting public comment online until it proposes new rules later this year.
Though the utilities commission could drop carrier-of-last-resort requirements for some old services, such as directory assistance, it could add new ones, such as guaranteed universal access to both reliable broadband internet and backup power to ensure the internet runs during emergencies.
Meanwhile, AT&T is still pushing to allow broadband to serve as a substitute for its traditional copper-wire phone system, known as POTS, for “plain old telephone service.”
Public interest advocates say the company should only be allowed to do so if it can prove that any replacement system is as reliable as a traditional landline and provides universal service.
Thousands of customers celebrated last year’s ruling against AT&T. Round two has come sooner than anyone expected.
“I was surprised that we got a positive ruling last year, and I was really surprised that we had to go to bat about this again such a short time later,” said Margaret Gaffney, a retired nurse who lives in Inverness. Cell phone reception in her town is spotty to non-existent, depending on where you live.
“I need my landline,” Ms. Gaffney said. “If there were a medical emergency, it might get kind of awful. I live alone, with two dogs and two cats who don’t know how to drive.”
Just as it was last year, the commission is being inundated with written comments from rural residents worried about losing their traditional landlines.
“Many people in my area have to leave their house to find cell coverage,” wrote Kathleen O’Neill of Bolinas. “Please do not remove this critical service.”
Vivien Straus of Marshall stressed that power outages are frequent in West Marin, where roads often flood or are blocked by downed trees. “Last winter the electricity was out for seven days,” she wrote. “Our only way to communicate is with the landline. Please do not allow them to go away. We need that landline.”
In recent years, AT&T’s landline rates have risen sharply—as have complaints of poor service. The company argues that maintaining copper lines is expensive and drains resources that could be used to upgrade to a modernized system.
“No customer will be left without access to voice or 911 service,” according to a statement provided by Chris Collins, a company spokesman. “We’re committed to working with state leaders and community members on policies that create a thoughtful transition to bring more reliable modern communications to all Californians.”
But with extended blackouts common in West Marin and other rural areas, public advocates are pushing for AT&T and other carriers-of-last-resort, or COLRs, to be required to provide reliable backup power for at least 72 hours.
“Any alternative service that is available to customers has got to be reliable,” said Regina Costa, a spokeswoman for the Utility Reform Network. “They have to address the backup power issue, and if they haven’t done that, then it’s not a viable alternative.”
AT&T is the largest COLR in the state, and its territory includes most of Northern California. COLRs are only allowed to abandon their territory if another company agrees to take it over. Bidders would potentially be able to tap into a state fund that would subsidize service in remote areas.
Ms. Costa said the state needs to increase the size of the fund, which is no longer large enough to attract any bidders. Last year, she pointed out, no company expressed interest when the public utilities commission canvassed potential applicants.
As the company argues its case to the commission, AT&T is also pushing A.B. 470, which would allow COLRs to end traditional landline service in regions that have broadband coverage.
But Ms. Costa said the bill would establish unreasonably lenient definitions for what constitutes reliable coverage. Any census tract with more than 50 percent cell phone coverage would be deemed sufficient—even as half the residents might not have reliable coverage.
“They’re asking for an easy way out of providing services in places that they don’t think are profitable,” Ms. Costa said.
AT&T should not be permitted to leave its COLR service area without first documenting that any alternative network—whether broadband or cellular—can reach all existing copper-wire landline customers, said Anita Taff-Rice, an attorney for Empowering Quality Utility Access for Isolated Localities, known as EQUAL.
“Whatever the replacement service, it needs to be equal in terms of availability, reliability and ubiquity,” she said.
Kelly Danner, who is building a house in Point Reyes Station, recently requested a landline from AT&T and was repeatedly rebuffed. Customer service agents offered internet phone service instead. In frustration, she called the company president’s office and got through to a staffer who told her that AT&T was no longer offering copper landlines in her area.
“Their blatant shirking of responsibility was infuriating,” Ms. Danner told the Light. “I became like a dog with a bone on this thing.”
Ms. Danner went to the public utility commission’s recent hearing in Santa Rosa to plead her case, stressing that cell service doesn’t reach her neighborhood.
“I have twin 5-year-olds and am terrified at the thought of an emergency happening and not being able to call for help due to a power outage or wifi glitch,” she said. “What would we do, run the mile to the fire department?”