Calif. Counties, Consumer Groups Urge No COLR Relief for AT&T

California consumer and county groups protested an AT&T request for carrier of last resort (COLR) relief in most of the state. The California Public Utilities Commission is reviewing the carrier’s amended application after an administrative law judge found an initial request lacked specificity. Plain old telephone service (POTS) remains a lifeline for many rural residents, especially in disaster-prone areas, said officials from Rural County Representatives of California (RCRC), The Utility Reform Network (TURN) and the CPUC’s independent Public Advocates Office (PAO) in interviews Friday.

AT&T is seeking relief from obligations to maintain landlines in remote parts of California (docket A.23-03-003). The carrier says COLR rules and copper networks are as outdated as VHS tapes due to the rise of alternatives VoIP and wireless (see 2304170055). An ALJ graded AT&T’s initial application as incomplete because he said it failed to specify census blocks and affected communities (see 2305030051). AT&T amended its application in May (see 2305170054), saying it’s not seeking total relief “at this time,” and it would continue to provide landlines on the same terms to the “few customers who currently lack an alternative to AT&T California’s basic voice service.”

The CPUC received opposition to AT&T’s amended application June 30 from RCRC, PAO, TURN and Center for Accessible Technology, and AT&T customer Nina Beety. The groups argued AT&T's application is still too broad, proposes too short a time frame to transition POTS customers and doesn't give enough evidence of suitable alternative providers. Beety said the carrier never mentioned its CPUC application in customer bills, hindering participation in the review process. She said copper is especially important to her due to a disability involving electric and magnetic fields.

PAO asked the ALJ to dismiss AT&T’s application with prejudice to prevent the carrier from refiling the same claim later, said Communications Program Manager Ana Maria Johnson. Alternatively, the ALJ should dismiss without prejudice but with a warning “that if AT&T continues its failure to comply with rulings and rules, its application will be dismissed with prejudice,” said PAO’s motion, filed the same day as its protest filing. It’s still “early days,” with the proceeding’s timeline still to be ironed out, said Johnson. The ALJ could next rule on PAO’s motion to stop the proceeding or move forward with a prehearing conference to set a schedule, she said.

Most consumers have already moved to alternatives to traditional landlines, an AT&T spokesperson emailed Friday. “This is a positive step in the process of creating a seamless transition for California customers from our old network and services to modern broadband and wireless communications networks.” The process should “move swiftly because Californians will be disadvantaged if the network modernization is hampered by outdated regulations,” said the spokesperson: In 21 states where AT&T provides local telephone, “California remains the only state that does not have a path forward to transition from existing copper-based legacy network to IP-enabled wireless and internet-based infrastructure.”

Public Safety Concerns

AT&T’s “wholesale ask” for COLR relief is “simply against public safety and the state’s goals of universal access to these essential communications services,” said PAO’s Johnson. AT&T seeks COLR relief in 99% of its census blocks, which together have a population of about 29 million Californians and include half a million POTS customers, she said. The carrier says alternatives exist, but “they have failed to do their due diligence” to ensure they're “actually going to work,” she said. The carrier’s claim that the obligations hold back fiber investment is a “scare tactic,” added the public advocate: COLR is technology neutral and hasn’t limited the carrier’s fiber investment.

Rural counties agree with AT&T that copper is outdated, said RCRC Senior Legislative Advocate Tracy Rhine, but if there isn’t a new technology or alternative carriers, removing COLR obligations might mean leaving people in high fire-prone areas without a way to communicate and to receive information in emergencies. The RCRC official understands that having to operate the old network might be a “money suck,” she said. “However, I don’t think they’re doing a lot of maintenance of these lines.” Rhine doubted that cost is high enough to hold back fiber.

“If you listen to California customers” at CPUC hearings, copper networks are “vitally important,” TURN Telecom Policy Director Regina Costa said. They’re critical during power outages and for people with medical devices that require reliable connectivity, she said. “It’s something you can count on if all else fails.” Fiber is the “network of the future” but can replace copper only if backup power is adequate, it's properly maintained and is subject to open-access rules, said Costa: TURN is also skeptical AT&T lacks money to invest in fiber now.

The CPUC should first complete its service-quality rulemaking (docket R.22-03-016) so it can verify that AT&T areas have reliable alternatives, said Rhine. And it makes sense to wait to see what infrastructure comes from government funding, including $6 billion in state broadband funds and $1.86 billion from NTIA’s broadband, equity, access and deployment program, said Rhine. Giving it five years seems like “a reasonable time to reassess” if AT&T should get COLR relief, she said.

TURN agrees the CPUC should update service quality rules to cover wireless, VoIP and broadband in addition to wireline before considering COLR relief for AT&T, said Costa. Rural areas with wireless might have spotty coverage, or it goes down every time it rains, she said. Costa agreed customers should have been notified the carrier was formally seeking relief.

AT&T listed “specific providers that we believe are credible alternatives to its service in the census blocks in which it seeks COLR relief,” the carrier’s spokesperson said. “During this application process, we have been fully transparent, including providing detailed information about the census blocks and wire centers where we are seeking COLR relief.”