AT&T Wins Early Approval to End Landline Service for 184,000 California Households
Source: The Mercury News |By Ethan Baron
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.
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.
