Source: Communications Daily | By Philip Athey

Alexandra Green, a telecom and regulatory attorney for TURN, said she appreciated that both proposed decisions include conditions on the merger. "We're still reviewing some of those conditions," she told us. "I can see some cases with each proposed decision where there are conditions that reflect things that TURN and other parties have asked for, and that's encouraging.”  She said more details about TURN's positions on the proposed decisions will be included in the group's comments on the decision, which are due July 29.

In a win for proponents of the Charter/Cox merger, approval of the $34.5 billion deal will be on the California Public Utilities Commission’s agenda at its Aug. 13 voting meeting, a CPUC spokesperson told us Friday. The commission will have the option to vote on two proposals, which were released Thursday and would apply conditions to the transaction. 

Source: The Los Angeles Times | By Jenny Jarvie

The FCC decision does not allow AT&T to immediately discontinue its landlines, said Ryan Johnston, a telecommunications regulatory attorney who works for the Utility Reform Network. The company is still waiting for FCC decisions on two separate applications, he said, plus a federal court ruling on AT&T’s request to bar California from enforcing its carrier of last resort rule.

As telecommunications giant AT&T accelerates its push to retire landline service to about 184,000 households and 15,000 businesses across the state, hundreds of Californians have voiced alarm in public comments. Many who rely on copper-wire landlines live in remote rural areas, but some also live in the hills and canyons of major metro areas like Los Angeles, where cell and internet service is patchy and the risk of natural disasters is high.

Source: USA Today Network | By Daniella Segura

The Rural County Representatives of California on July 1 announced it, along with the California State Association of Counties, The Utility Reform Network, and the Communications Workers of America (CWA), filed an amicus curiae brief supporting state officials in its lawsuit against AT&T. 

AT&T’s plan to eliminate legacy landlines in California made headway after a federal victory last week.  The Federal Communications Commission on June 29 approved a petition by AT&T to end the service in California, even though a state order bars the telecommunications company from doing so, Bay Area News Group reported.  

Source: Washington Watch | By NECA

 The Utility Reform Network, et al. said California’s COLR rules further both the state’s and FCC’s universal service goals and are providing for the public safety and general welfare of California residents. They also said the network modernization order AT&T relies on is too narrowly scoped to be applied here. 

Comments were filed on July 7, 2026, on AT&T’s petition seeking a declaratory ruling that any California law or regulation that interferes with or otherwise conditions AT&T’s ability to discontinue POTS as authorized by the FCC is preempted, following the March 2026 network modernization order.  

Source: NBC Bay Area | By Sergio Quintana

“We have a lot of disasters so when the electricity goes out your cell phone service usually goes out with it. So the CPUC needs to find out from customers how reliable, affordable and stable cell phone service is today and that’s why they are holding these Public Participation hearings” said Lee Trotman, Communications Director of TURN.

The California Public Utilities Commission is inviting the public to provide feedback on cellphone service quality during a series of upcoming hearings. With an estimated 29.5 million cellphone users in California, state regulators want to know how their service is holding up.

Source: Broadband Breakfast | By Jake Neenan

In a June 23 meeting with FCC staff, representatives from the Rural Country Representatives of California (RCRC) and The Utility Reform Network (TURN) urged the agency to remove AT&T’s application from streamlined treatment. The groups argued it wasn’t clear which exact locations would lose service, and that California had not approved AT&T Phone – Advanced (AP-A) as a complete copper landline replacement. The CPUC opposed the application on similar grounds.

On June 29, the Federal Communications Commission cleared AT&T’s request to discontinue copper voice services at more than 184,000 locations in California.  The company’s request for the agency to override the state’s copper retirement rules — and thus allow the discontinuance to move forward with just the FCC approval — is still pending.

Source: ARS Technica | By John Brodkin

The Utility Reform Network also said that itemization of passthrough fees helps prevent bill shock. Displaying an “up to” price instead “would only serve to dilute the effectiveness of the label and increase consumer confusion around how the final price they pay is calculated,” the group said.

The Federal Communications Commission will vote to eliminate a rule that requires Internet service providers to list all of their so-called “passthrough” fees on an easily accessible broadband price label. The FCC vote could also make the price labels themselves a bit harder for consumers to find.  ISPs routinely advertise prices much lower than those actually charged to consumers on their monthly bills. One method of raising monthly bill prices above advertised rates is to tack on fees that, ISPs claim, are used to offset charges imposed by local governments.

Source: KCBX | By Kendra Hanna

Matt Freedman, an attorney with The Utility Reform Network, agreed with the decision to source the funding from “volumetric performance fees” — money that PG&E already collects from ratepayers.  “Any additional payments to the local governments should be taken out of the existing incentives and slush funds that PG&E collects in rates already, rather than raising rates further to cover this cost,” Freedman told KCBX.

A state bill that would renew payments made by PG&E to San Luis Obispo County schools and other agencies has been altered to draw from a new funding source.  Senate Bill 931 was amended last month while in the Assembly Utilities and Energy Committee.

Source: The Mercury News | By Ethan Baron

In a related case, The Utility Reform Network, along with a major union and a group representing rural counties, are suing the FCC over its order, titled Reducing Barriers to Network Improvements and Service Changes; Accelerating Network Modernization.  The Utility Reform Network, joined by Rural County Representatives of California and the Communications Workers of America, is asking a federal appeals court to void the order, which would prevent the FCC from overriding state authorities and approving landline cancellations.

The approval does not immediately allow AT&T to disconnect customers. But it keeps alive the company’s broader effort to get federal regulators to override California rules requiring it to maintain basic phone service.  The utility’s win — and a related FCC approval to cease business landline service — came amid a years-long fight against California’s utilities commission that expanded in May when AT&T appealed to the FCC to override state regulators and let it cancel landlines.

Source: Action News Now | By Ainsley Van Reusen

Rural and county representatives are backing California in a legal fight to protect reliable phone service for all residents.  The Rural County Representatives of California (RCRC) and the California State Association of Counties (CSAC) filed an amicus curiae brief supporting the California Public Utilities Commission and the California Attorney General in a lawsuit brought by AT&T. The groups partnered with The Utility Reform Network (TURN) and the Communications Workers of America (CWA) to file the brief.

According to RCRC and CSAC, AT&T is seeking to end its Carrier of Last Resort (COLR) obligations, which require the company to provide basic telephone service to all Californians. The organizations say those obligations help ensure residents have access to reliable communications during disasters, power outages and other emergencies.

Source: YubaNet.com | By Rural County

The Rural County Representatives of California (RCRC) and the California State Association of Counties (CSAC), in partnership with The Utility Reform Network (TURN) and the Communications Workers of America (CWA), have filed an amicus curiae brief supporting the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) and the state Attorney General in a lawsuit initiated by AT&T. The lawsuit seeks to relieve AT&T of its Carrier of Last Resort (COLR) obligations and clear the way for the discontinuation of universal service in California.

COLR obligations ensure that all Californians have access to basic telephone service, safeguarding essential communications during disasters, power outages, and other emergencies when public safety is at risk.  

Source: Communications Daily | By Philip Athey

In the lawsuit, AT&T sought a court order to block the CPUC from requiring it to continue offering copper wire service to new customers.  Ryan Johnston, a telecom and regulatory attorney with The Utility Reform Network (TURN), said that despite AT&T’s claims, nearly 200,000 California residents still need that copper wire service.

AT&T has fought for years within California to loosen the state’s carrier of last resort (COLR) obligations, but after a newly released order from the FCC, the company has taken the fight to the national level -- a significant escalation, according to consumer advocates. While the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has said that COLR rules are technology-neutral, AT&T, the biggest COLR in the state, maintains that they are a de facto requirement to provide copper service to hundreds of thousands of residents.

Source: California Alliance for Community Energy | By John Smigelski

Mark covers TURN's transformation from a public interest law firm into a social movement organization (two-thirds women and two-thirds people of color) and the organizing philosophy behind their work. He reflects on the landmark No on Proposition 16 campaign, where a coalition outspent 500-to-1 still defeated PG&E, and shares lessons on building broad coalitions across the political spectrum to advance the public interest over corporate interests.

In this June 2026 Statewide Call, Mark W. Toney, Ph.D., Executive Director of TURN (The Utility Reform Network), shares how one of California's most powerful ratepayer advocacy organizations is building a diverse, big-tent movement to fight for affordable clean energy for all Californians. 

Source: Communications Daily | By Wireline

The Utility Reform Network, Rural County Representatives of California and Communications Workers of America challenged the FCC’s copper retirement order in a lawsuit filed last week in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit.

The California advocacy groups said in the lawsuit that the order violated both the Constitution and the Communications Act of 1934. “The Order exceeds the Commission’s statutory authority [and] is arbitrary and capricious and an abuse of discretion,” they argued.

Source: The Los Angeles Times | By Bianca Begert

Whatever demand materializes, TURN and others are fighting to shield ratepayers from the costs of PG&E’s buildout, a battle playing out at the Public Utilities Commission.  TURN says that costs don’t include all of the infrastructure and broader grid updates that PG&E will have to invest in to support data centers.  TURN is now backing a bill from State Sen. Steve Padilla (D-Chula Vista) that would require all data centers to pay for 100% of the costs of new transmission upgrades as well as new clean energy to cover at least half their required electricity. The industry is opposing the effort.

The nation is awash in data center hate and California is no exception.  Temporary bans have cropped up across the state as residents from Imperial County to San José fight proposals in their communities. Monterey Park became the first city in the country earlier this month to permanently ban data centers by a popular vote. And a recent poll sponsored by the environmental group Net-Zero California showed 70% of state residents don’t want data centers in their communities.

Source: Communications Daily | By Philip Athey

But multiple consumer advocacy groups said this week that the argument was flawed and that discontinuing copper networks in California without CPUC approval poses a severe safety risk.  The Utility Reform Network (TURN) said the CPUC should bear in mind that the FCC order is the subject of two federal lawsuits. “The Commission cannot ‘harmonize’ current or proposed COLR rules with an FCC Order that is not settled, but TURN does not object to provisions that contemplate revisiting the rules in the future, if necessary,” the group said. “The nature of these cases and their asks to determine whether the Commission has gone far enough leaves the finality of the FCC’s interpretation of the Network Modernization Order uncertain.”

Advocacy groups are calling on the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to reject industry arguments and instead fight against FCC's preemption of the state’s carrier of last resort rules, according to comment filings Thursday.  

Source: Broadband Breakfast | By Jake Neenan

The Utility Reform Network joined the other advocacy groups in asking for more stringent affordability conditions if the CPUC approves the deal. CalAdvocates and CETF defended their settlement agreements and said their terms were enough to mitigate potential consumer harms from the increased consolidation.

Some advocacy groups in California want the state to tack on more conditions if it approves Charter’s $34.5 billion acquisition of Cox Communications.  

Source: The Orange County Register | By Teri Sforza

“What we have to do is to fix the broken system where there are no limits to rate hikes, no limit to how much they can ask for or how many times a year they can ask, and no limit to how much the CPUC can grant,” said Mark Toney, executive director of The Utility Reform Network, at a cyber town hall last week.

Jaw Drop Detail No. 1: California’s big electric companies spent more than one thousand dollars for every state resident on wildfire-related costs between 2019 and 2024.  Which is to say, a cool $40 billion, divvied up between post-catastrophe liabilities ($13.6 billion) and pre-catastrophe infrastructure hardening ($26.6 billion).

Source: The Climate Center (Webinar) | By Pooja Arawal

Matt Freedman (at 15:28): “Now I want to talk a little about SB 905, authored by Senator Becker.  Residential electricity rates have skyrocketed in the past few years, creating a crisis of affordability for many Californians.  SB 905 addresses this crisis through a series of long-term accountability and cost reduction measures, designed to improve the performance of investor-owned electric utilities, better align utility investor and customer interests, and lower customer rates. 

Electricity prices are skyrocketing in California and families are struggling to pay their bills. In response, the California legislature is taking steps to make electricity more affordable using clean energy. This webinar highlighted current legislation, including bills that promote plug-in and community solar. These technologies make it easier to utilize locally generated clean energy to save money and make the grid more resilient. Bills discussed included SB 868 (Wiener), AB 1813 (Ward), and SB 905 (Becker). Participants had an opportunity to ask questions and take action to support these bills.

Source: USA Today | By Daniella Segura

“California already ranks third in the nation for data center capacity, and that capacity is only growing,” TURN Executive Director Mark Toney said in a statement announcing the survey’s release. “This poll makes it clear that voters expect lawmakers to set clear, enforceable standards that stop data centers from passing their infrastructure costs to families who receive little, if any, benefit.” 

At the same time, the poll — conducted with a sample of 850 likely November 2026 voters between May 17 and May 24 with a sampling error of +/-3.5 percentage points — found that three in five voters support legislation that puts certain safeguards on data centers. Twenty-six percent, however, said they would totally oppose such a law.