Source: Cal Matters | By Alejandra Reyes-Velarde

“Honestly, how much longer do folks have to wait?” asked Ashley Salas, an attorney with the consumer group, The Utility Reform Network (TURN). “How much longer are folks going to be harmed?” Advocates say they were not aware of any changes the utilities commission made to their application process, and regardless of the changes, residents without legal status haven’t been able to access the program. “It’s not making a meaningful difference for folks to be able to access the program,” Salas said.

It’s been 10 years since California decided to let low-income undocumented immigrants qualify for state subsidies of phone and internet services. Today the California LifeLine program — which helps 1.2 million low income households get free or discounted services — still excludes hundreds of thousands of undocumented residents because they don’t have Social Security numbers.

Source: San Francisco Chronicle | By Annie Vainshtein

“What AT&T is seeking is really, really profound,” said Regina Costa, telecommunications policy director for The Utility Reform Network. “By removing that obligation, that means there is no one that can guarantee service for a customer.”

An effort by AT&T to pull out of its obligations to offer landline services across a huge swath of California — including most of the Bay Area — has raised impassioned safety concerns among residents worried about what might happen if they lose access to their traditional wired phone lines, especially in the event of a natural disaster or other emergency. As the designated “carrier of last resort” in California, the telecommunications giant has long been required to provide basic phone services to people who want them, as required by state law. Such services are cheap, ubiquitous and heavily regulated.

Source: The Mercury News | By Ethan Baron

“The consequences are life threatening,” said Regina Costa, telecommunications policy director for consumer group The Utility Reform Network. Hundreds of thousands of households in the Bay Area and millions around California would lose landline service if the commission approves AT&T’s proposal, Costa estimated. AT&T declined to say how many households in the Bay Area or California would be affected.

Thanks to its earlier monopoly status and state law requiring voice communications for all who want them, AT&T is for large areas of California the “carrier of last resort” — the utility required to provide phone service to anyone wanting it in its service area. In its proposal to the utilities commission to escape that obligation, the company said it is seeking to stop landline service only in areas “where there is a demonstrated voice alternative.” Nearly all those commenting said they opposed the plan, citing a host of concerns, from medical crises to loss of communications during earthquakes, fires, floods and storms because cell phone infrastructure is damaged or power outages cut off internet service.

Source: KMUD News | By Lisa Music

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.”

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.

Source: Bakersfield | By John Cox

The CPUC Office of Ratepayer Advocates did not respond to requests for comment. But Regina Costa, the telecommunications policy director at The Utility Reform Network, a San Francisco-based organization that advocates on consumers' behalf, expressed skepticism with AT&T's proposal. Costa noted the VoIP service that some customers would be expected to switch to comes with vulnerabilities that landlines don't, such as susceptibility to potential cyberattacks. Rural areas could be "profoundly impacted" by AT&T's proposal, she added.

Consumers' reliance on landline phone service in places such as rural and urban parts of Kern County is being weighed against AT&T Inc.'s drive to refocus on more modern technology in a case pending before the California Public Utilities Commission. The Dallas-based telecommunications giant is asking the CPUC for permission to stop offering landline service in census-designated places where at least half local residents have cellphone coverage or other alternatives.

Source: Point Reyes Light | By Ben Stocking

“For over 100 years, the state, the C.P.U.C. and the federal government have promoted the idea that communities need reliable communication,” said Regina Costa of The Utility Reform Network, an Oakland-based consumer group. “AT&T is saying, ‘We don’t want to do that anymore, so goodbye, good luck and good riddance.’” Yet Ms. Costa said the upgraded broadband networks have yet to be installed in many rural regions—and they can’t be relied upon during power outages. “With your basic copper phone, it will work in a power outage, and you can guarantee it,” she said. The Utility Reform Network is one of several consumer groups that have urged the C.P.U.C. to reject AT&T’s application. Harriet Barlow, a Point Reyes Station resident who relies on a landline, hopes their challenge succeeds.

AT&T wants to stop providing traditional landline service in California, a move that could leave many customers in rural areas like West Marin with limited communications options—or perhaps none at all—during emergencies. AT&T’s request has outraged consumer advocates, who say that telephone companies should not be allowed to back out of their obligation to provide universal telecommunications service.

Source: KRCR | By Tyler Van Dyke

On Tuesday, we spoke with the Utility Reform Network (TURN) who is against the proposal to get their side of things and figure out more details on the proposal and the next steps. Telecommunications Policy Director Regina Costa explained to us the complicated process it will be.Costa explained that TURN believes that even if AT&T is denied they will then try to make it a law. "We think that their application they haven't been able to support it and we really think that their goal is to take this to the legislature to try and convince them to just put a bill through regardless of what the commission does, so you know this is kind of the preliminary round." Costa also said one of AT&T’s main arguments is that a lot of people don't use landlines these days, “One of their arguments is not as many people are using landlines but the other side of the coin is you’ve got over a million Californians using landlines,” Costa continued, “you have a situation where they have actively tried to drive people away from using landlines by not maintaining their network and then when people call in to complain it will take you a long time to fix it but if you want to switch over to this service you’ll get it right away, this is the game that they have been playing for a few years now, they’re obligated to maintain those lines and they haven’t done it.”

AT&T sent customers a letter informing them that they may no longer provide landline services in certain service areas throughout California. The letter states AT&T submitted an application to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) that, if approved, would remove AT&T’s obligation under California law to provide traditional landline phone service in a large portion of our service territory in California. This leaves customers in rural areas, with spotty service as it is, concerned.