Disconnected: Is This the Beginning of the End of Landline Services?

Source: KMUD News  |  By Lisa Music

Throughout California, telecom companies are obligated to provide Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS) to all areas, ensuring connectivity even in remote or underserved regions. The petition by AT&T seeks to remove their obligation to their designated COLR areas, allowing the telecom company to discontinue copper-line phone service in their service areas if other voice service options are available. However, advocacy groups like The Utility Reform Network (TURN), Rural County Representatives of California (RCRC), The Center for Accessible Technology (CforAT), and the Advocates Office at the California Public Utilities Commission (Cal Advocates), to name a few, are opposing the applications.

Regina Costa, the Telecommunications Policy Director for TURN, stated, “Universal telephone service is really essential for society. Being the Carrier of Last Resort means that everybody that AT&T serve[s], is entitled to have a service that will work, that you can use to communicate with your family, your friends, your job, your kids’ school, and people in Humboldt County know this very well.” The petition submitted by AT&T would relieve them of a century-old obligation to the residents within their designated territories, leaving those within their service areas without guaranteed reliable communication access, leaving AT&T free to put profit over service, Costa said. “[T]hey could stop [service] within six months, and they could do things like picking and choosing …a part of town they think is more lucrative [to] put new facilities in and start offering their more advanced services in those areas. [T]hey could focus on the more affluent neighborhoods. They can even deny people service by running credit checks.”