AT&T seeking to scuttle landlines in state
An effort by AT&T to pull out of its obligations to offer landline services across a huge swath of California — including most of the Bay Area — has raised impassioned safety concerns among residents worried about what might happen if they lose access to their traditional wired phone lines, especially in the event of a natural disaster or other emergency.
As the designated “carrier of last resort” in California, the telecommunications giant has long been required to provide basic phone services to people who want them, as required by state law. Such services are cheap, ubiquitous and heavily regulated.
But now, the company wants out.
Last year, AT&T filed an application with the California Public Utilities Commission to shed its obligation to offer basic phone services to people who request them. After a series of public meetings through the spring, the PUC is expected to make a decision on AT&T’s request in September.
Spokespersons for AT&T said they planned to transition the “few remaining consumers with traditional copper-based phone service” to newer technologies from them — or other phone service providers.
But if the company’s proposal is granted, AT&T wouldn’t legally have to. If the PUC approves AT&T’s request, the company would no longer be obligated to provide landline services to Californians who say they need them. Millions of people could be affected and lose access within six months, according to the application, if the PUC grants the company’s request.
Being forced to offer what AT&T called “obsolete” telephone technology was sapping resources the company would prefer to devote to expanding “its state-of-the-art broadband network,” AT&T said in its application to the PUC.
Spokespersons for AT&T said less than 7% of households in their California territory are using copper-based landline phone services, and that the company is investing in newer technologies such as fiber and wireless.
“At least one telephone company in a specified area is legally required to provide access to telephone service to anyone in its service territory who requests it,” state agency officials wrote in a summary of AT&T’s petition to cease offering landline services. The agency will be expected to make a decision on the request in September after a series of public hearings on the application.
AT&T has argued that its proposal should be granted even if there is no other carrier of last resort.
“Other outcomes are possible, such as another carrier besides AT&T volunteering to become the Carrier of Last Resort in your area, or the (agency) denying AT&T’s proposal,” PUC officials wrote.
In addition, AT&T is requesting to stop providing federally subsidized, lowincome phone services. For that to be granted, AT&T must demonstrate that another company can provide the services it currently offers. Telecommunications policy advocates say they don’t think that’s possible because the only options to replace AT&T are cellphone services, and they are notoriously unreliable.
Getting rid of landlines, many Bay Area residents said, would be life-threatening for those who rely on them for medical or emergency needs.
The impacts could be devastating for those especially in rural areas where cell service is spotty or nonexistent, advocates said. As of early February, nearly 3,000 people across California submitted comments to the commission raising concerns about AT&T’s proposal, many of whom said they were disabled, older or live in areas where landline service is crucial.
San Francisco resident Bella Rubin is one of many residents who said they rely on AT&T’s landline services for dire medical needs. Rubin, who is in her 80s, said that after her husband’s heart condition worsened, he began using a machine that transmits signals from his defibrillator to UCSF’s cardiology department — and it’s only by landline.
“When the internet is down or electric outages have occurred, the transmission has blown,” Rubin said. “The AT&T landline is a medical necessity.”
“What AT&T is seeking is really, really profound,” said Regina Costa, telecommunications policy director for The Utility Reform Network. “By removing that obligation, that means there is no one that can guarantee service for a customer.”
In San Francisco alone, 34% of households utilize a landline, and almost half of householders 55 and older use a landline, said Nicole Torres, CEO of On Lok, a nonprofit senior services provider.
“Disconnecting landlines could leave some of our vulnerable senior population isolated, unable to reach loved ones, access emergency services or address critical needs,” said Torres, adding that many frail and isolated seniors do not use cellphones. “During power outages or disasters, landlines can be their lifelines for communication and help.”
Thousands of households in cities including San Rafael, San Francisco, San Jose, Oakland, Fremont and Santa Rosa — and many more — could be affected, according to the PUC.
San Francisco resident Sandra Lipkowitz, who lives alone and has no immediate family, said she has felt devastated and helpless since hearing about the proposal.
“If electricity goes out, I have no way to contact anyone,” Lipkowitz said, calling the proposal corporate greed. “It just feels like we’re being thrown to the side … because we’re the most vulnerable and the big corporation doesn’t care.”
For Lipkowitz, AT&T’s petition to end landline services has evoked the terror of living through the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake and the fires that followed. The Bay Area households and businesses that lost power for days after a strongerthan-forecast bomb cyclone this month ripped through California reinforced those concerns, she said.
“There are people who maybe haven’t experienced not having electricity or didn’t live through the fires,” she said. “With climate change right now — and way more rains and fires, there are way more times when electricity is going to go out.”