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As AT&T looks to pull back on its traditional landline services in California, Santa Clara County is preparing to weigh in on the issue and advocate on behalf of residents who would be negatively impacted by the withdrawal.
The motion to look into the matter further passed unanimously at the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday morning, March 12.
“‘Hello. Can you hear me? Okay, can you hear me now?’ Well, how often have we screamed those words on our cell phone and our voice and IP service?” said Supervisor Otto Lee, drawing attention to the implications of not having access to reliable and clear telecommunications.
A year ago, AT&T submitted an application to the California Public Utilities Company (CPUC) to withdraw as the “carrier of last resort” in large parts of California. The requested area encompasses most of the Bay Area, including Santa Clara County, as shown by an AT&T coverage map.
A carrier of last resort (COLR) provides basic telephone service, typically landlines, to any customer who requests the service. Additionally, at least one telephone company is required to provide this kind of support in its service territory. AT&T is the largest COLR in California, and no new carriers have been designated to take its place, according to the CPUC website.
AT&T’s proposal only affects its landline telecommunications, but the service is critical for residents who live in areas where cell phone and internet services are unreliable or nonexistent, according to the county supervisors.
“Dealing with severe weather and climate change, the idea of not having a redundant system is pretty terrifying,” said Supervisor Cindy Chavez, who brought up the threat of wildfires and the need to have reliable telecommunications, particularly in areas susceptible to emergency situations.
Supervisor Sylvia Arenas also raised concerns about the lack of reliable cell coverage in remote and hilly parts of the county. “I’ve had quite a bit of casework where my team has shared with me that folks have been having quite a bit of issues with AT&T when we call on their behalf. They say it should be working, but it’s not,” she said.
“Our residents already have very shoddy service and to have no service is really going to put them in a huge disadvantage,” Arenas added.
Brandon Baranco, an AT&T representative, pushed back on these characterizations, stating that AT&T was not eliminating its phone line service. “All we’re doing is changing the technology behind it to a more modern and reliable network,” he said.
Baranco described the deficiencies of the current system, stating that the copper network used for phone lines was going to fail soon. The parts needed to maintain it no longer were being produced, he said.
“At its heart, the AT&T network modernization is ensuring that California has a plan to transition the customers before this failure happens,” he said, without elaborating on how this transition would occur or what it would look like.
The AT&T website, however, provides some information about the technology it plans to use, with fiber broadband promoted as part of its modernization efforts. “Modern fiber optic technology transmits data using ultra-thin, glass, fiber-optic cables that harness light instead of electricity, resulting in more bandwidth and faster speeds,” it said.
The website also said that AT&T would not cancel home phone service in California.
On this point, the county report highlighted the importance of “plain old telephone service” and not voice over internet protocol (VOIP) to ensure that “everyone in California has access to safe, reliable, and affordable telephone service.”
As part of the motion, the county plans to provide comment at the last CPUC public forum that will be held on March 19. It also plans to investigate other ways that it can take legal, legislative and advocacy action on the issue.
The San Mateo County Board of Supervisors also held a meeting on Tuesday to learn more about the specifics of AT&T’s proposal. The supervisors voted 5-0 to direct the County Attorney’s Office to draft a resolution opposing AT&T’s application to terminate its status as the carrier of last resort in California, according to a county news release on March 12.