Residents in Los Angeles and across California are expressing significant alarm over AT&T's accelerated plan to retire traditional copper landline service, citing concerns about reliability during emergencies, particularly in areas prone to natural disasters like fires and earthquakes.
For individuals like Peter and Nanci Ellis, residing in the Hollywood Hills, their landline is a critical lifeline. With frequently unreliable cellphone service at their home, they depend on their traditional phone for essential communications, including medical consultations and job interviews. Furthermore, the landline is integrated with their home alarm system and smoke detectors, providing a crucial link to emergency services in a neighborhood with limited access and high-risk factors for fires and landslides.
While AT&T is moving to phase out landlines for approximately 184,000 households and 15,000 businesses in California, arguing that copper lines are obsolete and costly to maintain, hundreds of residents have submitted public comments detailing their reliance on this service. Many of these individuals, including elderly residents like 81-year-old Sarah Adams in Rancho Palos Verdes, live in areas with patchy cell and internet coverage and face significant risks from natural disasters. Adams stated, "To be in a situation where if there’s an emergency, like an earthquake or a fire, and my mobile phone doesn’t work, I have no means to communicate with my family."
AT&T's proposed discontinuation of landline service, which it claims costs $1 billion annually to maintain and serves only 3% of its California customers, is being met with resistance from state regulators and consumer advocates. The company argues that retiring copper lines will enable investment in more modern infrastructure. However, consumer watchdogs contend that copper landlines are more reliable during disasters as they operate on a separate low-voltage power system and do not depend on potentially overloaded cell towers or local power grids. AT&T counters that modern networks are more resilient and faster to restore.
The conflict has escalated as AT&T filed a federal lawsuit against California's Public Utilities Commission and the state attorney general's office, seeking to override the state's mandate to continue offering landline service. Despite a recent FCC order that provides a pathway for telecommunications companies to appeal state laws requiring the maintenance of aging copper lines, the transition is not immediate. Regulatory attorneys note that AT&T awaits further FCC decisions and a federal court ruling. An AT&T spokesman assured that no customer would be left without phone or 911 service and that areas lacking reliable wireless coverage would be accommodated, but advocates question the reliability of AT&T's proposed replacements, such as AT&T Phone – Advanced, which still requires power at both the cell site and the customer's home.
Consumer advocates argue that the core issue is ensuring reliable service, not impeding technological modernization. They express concern that proposed alternatives are not as dependable or compatible with existing technologies, such as medical alert devices and home alarm systems. "People should not have to accept a less reliable service in order to help AT&T meet its quarterly revenue goals," stated Ryan Johnston of the Utility Reform Network. "We should not be willing to sacrifice people for what providers consider progress." Political figures, like GOP candidate for California governor Steve Hilton, have also urged the FCC to reconsider its decision, emphasizing that state regulators had previously concluded that AT&T had not demonstrated reliable replacements for all communities.
