In a setback for AT&T, a bill that provided a pathway for the telecommunications company to be released from its designation as carrier of last resort for most of its territory was pulled from a hearing early this week, making it unlikely to resurface in this year’s legislative session.
Assembly Bill 2797, which originally dealt with a license for horse racing, was gutted and reintroduced by Assemblymember Tina McKinnor, D-Inglewood. On Monday, McKinnor requested that the bill be canceled following concerns raised by the Senate Energy, Utilities and Communications Committee.
The carrier of last resort, or COLR, designation obligates a carrier to provide basic service to all customers within their territory no matter where they live. It can provide telephone service over any technology, such as copper, fiber, cable, voice over internet protocol (VoIP is a combination of copper and fiber), or wireless cellular. AT&T California has held the COLR designation since 1996.
“We will continue to work on this issue with stakeholders to get it right for our constituents. This transition is already in progress and guidance from the Legislature is important,” McKinnor said in an email statement Tuesday. “We cannot pretend we’re protecting people by leaving them on an old and inferior network. We must continue to move toward helping them transition and achieving digital equity in California.”
AB 2797 would have created a way for AT&T to remain as COLR in certain rural regions, which the company estimates as involving about 100,000 customers.
Tedi Vriheas, AT&T’s vice president for external affairs, said in a June 19 interview that the bill would have released the company as COLR in those areas where the Census shows there is no population. They would also be released from the COLR designation in cities and suburbs, where people have a growing number of other carrier options, even if those alternatives are wireless carriers only.
In March 2023, the company applied to the California Public Utilities Commission to be released from the designation, adding that the cost of maintaining a copper network for less than 5% of their territory had become too costly. The move sparked a heated backlash from the public, and the CPUC voted June 21 to reject AT&T’s request.
Regina Costa, telecom policy director for The Utility Reform Network, a consumer advocacy organization, cautioned that the rules for carrier of last resort should not be adopted based on one company.
“They are industrywide rules. And they should not be rewritten in a piecemeal way, by looking at a single application, not just AT&T. The rules should be revised by the commission instead,” Costa said.
A ‘major win’
Commissioner John Reynolds said in that meeting that the CPUC received over 5,000 public comments and held eight public forums drawing more than 5,800 attendees, some driving for hours to protest what they perceived was a loss of landlines and a threat of access to emergency services to rural regions.
“The death of AB 2797 is a major win for California residents living in rural areas whose public health and safety is reliant on their landline service due to poor cellular reception and a fragile power grid,” said San Mateo County Supervisor Ray Mueller said in a statement Monday.
Mueller was one of the first public officials to speak out against the company’s request in March. He spoke at the CPUC’s meeting in June. San Mateo County has a lot of residents that live in rural and remote areas, where cellular service is spotty.
“The death of AB 2797 is a major win for California residents living in rural areas whose public health and safety is reliant on their landline service due to poor cellular reception and a fragile power grid.”
San Mateo County Supervisor Ray Mueller
“My constituents scored a win with the withdrawal of state legislation that would have allowed AT&T to leave them without a landline to call 911 in an emergency and communicate daily in their rural settings where there is poor or non-existent broadband,” said U.S. Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Palo Alto. Eshoo’s district is in the South Bay, Mid-Peninsula, and coastal San Mateo County.
The CPUC will continue to address the issue in their rule-making proceedings in the coming months. Initial public comments are due Sept. 30. AT&T’s request to be released from designation as COLR must also be approved by the Federal Communications Commission.
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