Source: The Sacramento Bee | By Mark Toney and Kat Taylor

Carrier of Last Resort (COLR) obligations are legal requirements that ensure every household and business has access to basic telephone service, regardless of location remoteness, unprofitability or access challenges.

Source: The Mercury News/Bay Area News Group | By Ethan Baron

“Right now we have 5% of Californians still using their copper lines,” said Southern California Assembly Member Tina McKinnor, the bill’s author. “Most of that is an older population. When we no longer have them with us, like my parents, we probably won’t be 5%.” “It most definitely is an end run around the PUC,” said Regina Costa, telecom policy director at The Utility Reform Network, a San Francisco-based consumer advocacy group opposed to the bill. For customers in purportedly well-served areas who lose landlines and can’t secure an alternative, the Public Utilities Commission would have to confirm the absence of options. “There is no way that people will understand what’s going on,” Costa said, “and there’s no way that the commission has the resources to go out and verify throughout the entire state where there are verified alternative services.”

Assembly Bill 470 would allow the company, which provides the vast majority of the state’s landline service, to drop most of those customers, including nearly all of the hundreds of thousands in the Bay Area and millions around the state. It easily passed a floor vote in the Assembly in late June, and is now before the state Senate’s appropriations committee.

Source: Broadband Breakfast | By Jennifer Michel

Mark Toney, executive director of The Utility Reform Network, said AB 470 would allow providers to “pick and choose which neighborhoods they serve,” eliminating long-standing requirements for universal phone access.

Assembly Bill 470, which advanced in the state legislature Thursday after a contentious July 15 hearing, would allow providers like AT&T to withdraw from their Carrier of Last Resort (COLR) obligations in areas deemed to be “well-served” by multiple, competing service providers. At the hearing before California’s Senate Energy, Utilities and Communications Committee, proponents described AB 470 a long-overdue step to modernize California’s communications infrastructure. Critics, meanwhile, warned the bill could strand rural communities without a dependable fallback for emergency calls, repairs, or basic voice service.

Source: Communications Daily | By Gabriella Novello

"Without COLR obligations, telephone companies can pick and choose which neighborhoods they serve with copper, VoIP or fiber," said TURN Executive Director Mark Toney.

AT&T called on California lawmakers Tuesday to grant it and other carriers relief from carrier of last resort (COLR) obligations. Meanwhile, the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and The Utility Reform Network (TURN) urged the committee to maintain its nearly 30-year-old rules.

Source: KFIAM | By iHeartRadio

However, digital equity advocates and emergency responders express concerns over the potential impact on public safety. Landlines are seen as crucial during emergencies, such as wildfires or earthquakes, because they carry their own electrical charge and remain operational during power outages. Regina Costa of The Utility Reform Network (TURN) emphasized that the bill is about ensuring reliable telecom service for every Californian, regardless of technology.

A new bill in California could allow AT&T to phase out landline services, affecting hundreds of thousands of households. Assembly Bill 470 proposes to relieve AT&T of its legal obligation as a carrier of last resort, which requires the company to provide landline services to anyone who requests them. The bill aims to transition from copper landlines to more modern communication technologies, such as fiber optics and voice-over internet protocol (VoIP). AT&T argues that the transition will modernize the state's telecommunications infrastructure and improve reliability. According to LAist, Susan Santana, president of AT&T California, stated, "We’re committed to working with state leaders and community members on policies that create a thoughtful transition to bring more reliable, modern communications to all Californians."

Source: LAist | By Nereida Moreno

“ The bill is not just about copper landlines,” said Regina Costa of The Utility Reform Network or TURN, an advocacy group that has helped organize residents around the landline issue. “It's about the mandate… to make sure that every single customer in California has reliable telecom service and it doesn't matter what the technology is.”

Hundreds of thousands of California households could lose their landline service under a new state bill that would allow AT&T to be relieved of its legal obligation to be a carrier of last resort. That requires the telecom giant to offer landlines to anyone who wants one. AT&T says the bill would ensure the company’s transition from “antiquated” copper landlines to a more modern network in phases over time. But digital equity advocates say the move would be detrimental for public safety – especially in the case of a wildfire or earthquake.

Source: The Mercury News/ Bay Area News Group| By Grant Stringer

The influential consumer advocacy group The Utility Reform Network supports the bill for its combination of long-term cost reductions for ratepayers and immediate relief, executive director Mark Toney said in an email.

The most influential bill introduced so far this session is Becker’s Senate Bill 254, which was released in its expanded form on Tuesday. The bill is intended to give ratepayers relief by paying for some projects with other sources of funds, expand subsidies for low-income residents and provide all customers with credits to use during summer months when bills are priciest. It would also expand oversight and transparency of rate increases and utilities’ profits.

Source: Politico| By Tyler Katzenberger and Christine Mui

Whether the law applies in this situation is unclear, said Adria Tinnin, a policy advocate for The Utility Reform Network. But if it did, it would give the Trump administration or another GOP leader in Washington a golden opportunity to go after the Golden State. And that’s well within the realm of possibility, given Republicans’ adversarial relationship with California and ongoing pursuit of mass deportations. “It's a time suck that would further delay the implementation of a really important decision,” Tinnin told Decoded.

Assemblymember Avelino Valencia’s proposal — a priority bill for state Democrats’ Latino Legislative Caucus — would make California the first U.S. state to allow undocumented immigrants and other people without social security numbers to sign up for the state's LifeLine program, which offers low-income households up to $19 off their monthly phone bill. Valencia’s plan would protect undocumented immigrants by barring LifeLine administrators from sharing customers’ personal information with federal immigration authorities absent a warrant.

Source: USA Today | By Betty Lin-Fisher

"Customers may be losing a choice for reliable service," said Regina Costa, telecommunications policy director for The Utility Reform Network (TURN) in California. Costa, who also chairs the telecommunications committee for the National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates, said copper wire technology landline service is the most reliable format for calls because the phone lines still work when there is a power outage, earthquake, or other natural disaster.

AT&T plans to eliminate its traditional landline phone service across nearly all U.S. states in its service area by 2029, according to an official announcement. The wireless carrier has said its copper wire infrastructure is antiquated, maintaining it is costly and better service is available through fiber and wireless broadband networks.

Source: Politico | By Tyler Katzenberger

Ashley Salas, an attorney with independent consumer advocacy nonprofit The Utility Reform Network, framed it as a public safety issue: “If someone without a social security number that’s low-income sees a wildfire, and they can’t call 911, that hurts everyone in the community.”

California is weighing a first-in-the-nation proposal that would grant some undocumented immigrants access to a government-run phone bill discount program. But the timing is a bit awkward. The proposal, scheduled for an agency vote Sept. 26, would see the state eliminate social security numbers as a requirement for California LifeLine, a program that subsidizes phone bill discounts for low-income residents. California’s Public Utilities Commission agreed to drop the requirement 10 years ago but never did.

Source: ABC10 | By Brandon Rittimanhor

Customers who received some of PG&E’s first new underground power lines are shocked by how little the company buried and frustrated by a lack of clear communication

Source: Redheaded Blackbelt | By Sarah Reith

Regina Costa is the telecommunications policy director for TURN, The Utility Reform Network, which fought vigorously against AT&T’s proposal. She is confident the successful effort to hold AT&T to its obligations as COLR was due in part to “the people of Mendocino County and Humboldt County, people who drove and waited for hours to give public testimony on the problems with AT&T’s proposals. What you guys did made a massive difference.” The fight for quality service in rural California isn’t over, though. One common complaint is that AT&T doesn’t maintain its network to a high standard. Regina Costa says the CPUC is now looking “very closely” at a report on service quality issues. “Part of that report discusses what AT&T admitted, which is that it doesn’t maintain its network because it doesn’t have staff,” she said. “Well, they made the decision to reduce their staff.” She says the commission is now considering if there is a way to force the utility to increase its personnel. “Most of the time, even when the lines are horrible, if they could still at least work, you’ve got something,” she observed.

A bill that would have relieved telephone companies of their legal obligation to provide essential telecommunications services at affordable prices was pulled from a key committee on Monday, meaning it is not currently on its way to a vote by the full House.

Source: San Jose Spotlight | By Brandon Pho

A representative with The Utility Reform Network (TURN), an Oakland-based group that advocates for affordable connectivity, said AT&T retreated and pulled the bill in the face of public scrutiny. “Californians saw through AT&T’s smoke and mirrors,” TURN’s Telecom Policy Director Regina Costa told San José Spotlight. “The bill wasn’t about modernizing AT&T’s network, it was about giving AT&T the power to walk away from providing any kind of service wherever it chose.”

A state bill that would have let AT&T off the hook for emergency landline service — circumventing state regulators and affecting remote pockets of Santa Clara County — is on hold after public backlash. Assembly Bill 2797 has been pulled from the California Senate Energy, Utilities and Communications Committee meeting slated for Tuesday. It comes after the bill — originally about horse racing — was gutted and amended to give telecommunications companies another way out of their “carrier of last resort” duty if they submit a notice showing a lack of customers or that alternative services are available. Critics said AT&T is behind the bill, which Assemblymember Tina McKinnor introduced just before state utility regulators denied AT&T’s request to withdraw from its state obligation.

Source: KTVU Fox 2 | By Ann Rubin

Right now, AT&T is what's called a carrier of last resort. It's required by law to offer landline service to anyone in California who wants it. But that could soon change thanks to proposed legislation. AB 2797 would make it easier for AT&T to pull out of certain areas. "If this passes, they are not obliged to provide service, which means they can pull completely out of serving an area. They can decide they don't want to serve certain neighborhoods. They can decline service to customers, refuse to repair their phone lines," says Regina Costa of The Utility Reform Network or TURN.

Politicians and utility advocates are speaking out. They say Californians' right to landlines needs to be protected, and they're concerned proposed legislation puts that right in jeopardy. In this part of Santa Clara County, when there are wildfires or earthquakes, landlines can be lifelines. Mary Picchetti says her neighbors are all scared they could lose theirs.

Source: Bay City News | By Ruth Dusseault

“Copper uses electricity. But when the power goes out, the power is provided from the telephone company by very big generators,” said Regina Costa with The Utility Reform Network, a nonprofit watchdog group that advocates for affordable power and phone service. “When an earthquake hits and the power’s out for two or three days, you still have local phone service.”

The California Public Utilities Commission has rejected AT&T’s request to withdraw as a carrier of last resort, or COLR, but it also decided to revisit the rules of determination. Meanwhile, a new bill in the state Legislature would revise the requirements for any company to be designated the COLR. The COLR is a cornerstone of utility regulation. It 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 that designation since 1996. It planted utility poles and strung copper telephone wire throughout the state.

Source: CalMatters | By Khari Johnson

California’s Public Utilities Commission today rejected AT&T’s application to stop providing landlines and other services in areas where there is no other option.

Its 4-0 vote came after a judge determined the application by AT&T California was “fatally flawed.”

Source: SF Chronicle | By Aidin Vaziri

AT&T must continue offering landline telephone service in California, state regulators decided Thursday.

Source: San Jose Spotlight | By Brandon Pho

Affordable connectivity advocates like Regina Costa don’t buy it. “They have the ability right now to put fiber optic into their network and they have chosen not to. So what does that say?” Costa, telecom policy director for the Oakland-based utility reform group TURN, told San José Spotlight. “In the era of climate change there are going to be more and more problems and that includes fires. If you are in an area that doesn’t have a reliable alternative, which is much of California, and we’re hit by an earthquake or have fires — you cannot rely on being able to call 911 to contact family, friends to let them know you’re okay.” Costa called the bill “cynical.” “It’s a greedy bill and it puts Californians in jeopardy,” Costa said. “It would be a public safety catastrophe.”

After public outcry across the Bay Area, state regulators this week barred AT&T from pulling out of a crucial lifeline for hard-to-reach residents in remote pockets of Santa Clara County: basic landline services. But on the eve of the California Public Utilities Commission’s Thursday decision, a state law proposal about horse racing was gutted and amended to legislation that would give the telecommunications giant another way to phase out its statewide landline duty. The new Assembly Bill 2797 would relieve telephone carriers from their “carrier of last resort” designation if they submit a notice showing a lack of basic customers or that alternative carrier services are available in a given area.

Source: The Mercury News | By Ethan Baron

The Utility Reform Network estimated that hundreds of thousands of households in the Bay Area and millions around California would have lost landline service if the California Public Utilities Commission had approved AT&T’s proposal. “It’s a great victory for Californians,” said Regina Costa, telecommunications policy director for The Utility Reform Network.

State utility regulators Thursday unanimously shot down a massively unpopular proposal by AT&T to scrap landline service for most of the Bay Area and much of California that critics charged would have stripped many older people and rural residents of a communications lifeline in power outages and disasters such as fires and floods.

Source: LAist | By Nereida Moreno

“We're now in fire season and people had better have a way to receive emergency alerts and communicate with each other when the power goes out,” said Regina Costa of the advocacy group TURN. It helped organize residents around the landline issue. “AT&T did not prove its case at the commission … they didn't present any evidence to show that customers would have any real alternatives, and in fact, they admitted that they don't,” Costa said. “In California, we tend to look at things a little more closely, so hopefully [lawmakers] will see through this,” Costa said.

After months of public backlash, California regulators are expected to reject AT&T’s bid to phase out landline service at a meeting on Thursday this week — but the company is still exploring other legal remedies. AT&T is trying to withdraw as a carrier of last resort (COLR) which requires the company to offer basic phone service to anyone who wants it. It’s held that designation since 1996, and remains one of the only companies in the state to offer traditional copper-based landline service.