Commission Rejects AT&T Application to End Landline Services

The California Public Utilities Commission has rejected a proposal by AT&T that would have allowed the company to discontinue landline phone service in much of the state.

The proposal left many residents, including seniors, across the City concerned, due to their reliance on landline service in emergencies.

A new plan being floated by AT&T ensures that customers have access to multiple service choices or allows them to keep their current “legacy” telephone service.

“Customers will be able to keep their existing landline phone and 911 access as long as they need it if alternatives are not available,” according to a bulletin by AT&T. “Any alternatives must be compatible with backup power sources. The updated plan requires emergency preparedness education, particularly for customers in high fire threat areas, including information on backup power resources.”

The updated proposal would exempt rural areas and urban blocks that do not have at least two alternative service options, among other changes.

AT&T filed two requests with the California Public Utilities Commission. The first, to be relieved from its Carrier of Last Resort obligations in certain areas of California, identified in application A.23-03-003. Carrier of Last Resort obligations ensures that basic telephone services are available to anyone in a designated area who requests them.

The second request, detailed in application A.23-03-002, is for AT&T to remove its designation as an Eligible Telecommunications Carrier. This status currently enables AT&T to receive federal assistance from the Universal Service Fund to offer affordable telephone services in specific areas.

The City of Pasadena is within the service region that AT&T’s withdrawal as a Carrier of Last Resort would have impacted.

The California Public Utilities Commission held a series of public forums, both in-person and virtual, to gather input from AT&T customers earlier this year to gather inputs from residents across the state.

In February, the City Manager’s office said it had alerted residents and businesses to significant potential changes in landline telephone services proposed by AT&T. The telecommunications giant is seeking approval from the California Public Utilities Commission to modify its obligations.

An AT&T spokesperson told Pasadena Now in February that it was not “canceling landline service in California, and none of our California customers will lose access to voice service.”

AT&T Regional Media Relations representative Miguel Lopez-Najera said, “There’s been a dramatic, and continuing, decline in the number of customers who subscribe to our traditional landline voice service over the last two decades, and less than 7% of households we serve in California use a copper-based landline. We are focused on enhancing our network with more advanced, higher-speed technologies like fiber and wireless, which consumers are demanding.”