https://docs.cpuc.ca.gov/PublishedDocs/Published/G000/M533/K846/533846154.PDF
DECISION DISMISSING WITH PREJUDICE THE APPLICATION OF AT&T
CALIFORNIA TO WITHDRAW AS A CARRIER OF LAST RESORT

I think they can afford the obligation or upgrade to fiber.

The administrative law judge's proposed decision said AT&T falsely claimed that commission rules require it "to retain outdated copper-based landline facilities that are expensive to maintain."
https://investors.att.com/~/media/F...erly-earnings/2024/1Q24/1Q24_ATT_Earnings.pdf

 

In our county we have a very old Private Telephone Company, the Darien Telephone Company. One of (if not the first) not many that didn't lease service on power poles for distribution but has all underground buried lines distribution. They have segued into Cable TV and Fiber Optic Internet up to 1GB all underground as well. Cell phones are driving the landlines out of business and into the history books along with billions of tons of copper wire installed throughout the US. I still remember the forest of poles strung with copper along the Railroad Tracks that disappeared already as carriers. We got into a dispute with AT&T and Southern Bell years ago over modem speed being limited to 2400 baud when contracts required them to support 19200(?) which they could not do because of old mechanical relay switches still in use causing limitations. The Georgia Public Services Commissioner got on board supporting our complaint that the limitation to baud rate was causing excessive long-distance charges due to the limitation. The Commision took up the problem with the telephone companies that they were overcharging customers due to their lack of contract compliance. The phone company pulled their contract out of the bottom drawer and pointed out to the Commision the small print that said basically "if the customer didn't like it they didn't have to use their service". Their lawyers had protected them very well. So, I cannot see how they can now require them to maintain service?

 

In our county we have a very old Private Telephone Company, the Darien Telephone Company. One of (if not the first) not many that didn't lease service on power poles for distribution but has all underground buried lines distribution. They have segued into Cable TV and Fiber Optic Internet up to 1GB all underground as well. Cell phones are driving the landlines out of business and into the history books along with billions of tons of copper wire installed throughout the US. I still remember the forest of poles strung with copper along the Railroad Tracks that disappeared already as carriers. We got into a dispute with AT&T and Southern Bell years ago over modem speed being limited to 2400 baud when contracts required them to support 19200(?) which they could not do because of old mechanical relay switches still in use causing limitations. The Georgia Public Services Commissioner got on board supporting our complaint that the limitation to baud rate was causing excessive long-distance charges due to the limitation. The Commision took up the problem with the telephone companies that they were overcharging customers due to their lack of contract compliance. The phone company pulled their contract out of the bottom drawer and pointed out to the Commision the small print that said basically "if the customer didn't like it they didn't have to use their service". Their lawyers had protected them very well. So, I cannot see how they can now require them to maintain service?

They can be required to maintain service because those lawyers once had a sweetheart deal (a legal obligation as a monopoly) with the state for those copper landlines. That deal with that state still exists but today it's not the money maker it once was.

All of the incumbent LECs listed in Attachment A of
D.96-10-066 were designated as the COLR in all their respective service areas
(also called geographic study areas, or GSAs) at least until such time that another
carrier or carriers are designated as the COLR.8 To that end, the Commission’s
COLR rules required a designated COLR to retain its obligations until another
carrier is designated.9 The COLR Rules also include a procedure to replace the
last remaining COLR.10
A designated COLR may opt out of its obligations GSA by advice letter
unless it is the only COLR remaining in its service territory. If no other COLRs
serve the territory in question, a COLR must file an application to withdraw as
the COLR and continue to act as the COLR until the application is granted
(because a new COLR has come forward) or a new COLR has been designated as
a result of an auction.11

AT&T contends the COLR obligation made sense during an era of
monopolies, but makes no sense today, given the current marketplace.

9.2. No Potential COLR Volunteered to Replace AT&T
AT&T has already indicated that there is not another COLR in AT&T's
service territory.45 Further, no carrier eligible to replace AT&T as a COLR
volunteered to do so.
9.3. AT&T’s Proposed Alternatives are not COLRs
The alternatives for voice service that AT&T claims can replace its COLR
service -- including VoIP service from cable companies such as Comcast or Cox,
and mobile voice providers such as Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T Mobility46
--
do not meet the definition of a COLR.47 These companies did not apply to be
COLRs and the Commission has not designated them as such.

Those hot lawyers made the deal long ago and now they have to eat that deal.

 

I think they can afford the obligation or upgrade to fiber.

They probably will try to kill the landline by upping the landline charges, based on the cost, until no-one uses it.

 

They probably will try to kill the landline by upping the landline charges, based on the cost, until no-one uses it.

They might try but there are also state/federal limitations on tariffs per the Carrier of Last Resort agreement they made plenty of money in the past with that government sanctioned monopoly and now want to just abandon it when it isn’t convenient any longer. They a rightly grandfathered because AT&T benefited greatly from this deal initially as the only way to get remote area service The only way out IMO is to spin-off that part of the business as a separate COLR that can make a new deal with the state or buy votes.
https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB2797

AB 2797, as amended, Blanca Rubio McKinnor. Horse racing: harness racing: Valley Victory. Telephone corporations: carriers of last resort: tariffs.
Existing law authorizes the Public Utilities Commission to supervise and regulate every public utility in the state, including telephone corporations, and to fix just and reasonable rates and charges for public utilities. Existing law requires the commission, on or before February 1, 1995, to issue an order initiating an investigation and open a proceeding to examine the current and future definitions of universal service in telecommunications. Pursuant to that provision, the commission issued a decision involving carriers of last resort, including the withdrawal process for carriers of last resort, defined as a carrier who provides local exchange service and stands ready to provide basic service to any customer requesting such service within a specified area.
This bill would no longer require a telephone corporation seeking relief from carrier of last resort obligations to be a carrier of last resort or to have any carrier of last resort obligations if the telephone corporation submits a notice containing certain information to the commission and modifies and removes its commission tariffs. The bill requires telephone corporations to identify, as part of the notice, (1) a census block of the telephone corporation’s service territory where there is no population or where the company has no basic exchange telephone service customers, or (2) a census block designated as urban where 2 or more different service providers offer alternative voice services, as defined, to customers, or both. The bill would also require the telephone corporation to acknowledge in the notice that it will not discontinue basic exchange telephone service until certain federal requirements are satisfied. The bill would require these telephone corporations to provide certain public benefits commitments, including, among things, by providing education to affected customers to explain the benefits and advantages of transitioning to modern networks and services.
Under existing law, a violation of the Public Utilities Act is a crime. Because the provisions of this bill are within the act, a violation of these provisions would impose a state-mandated local program by creating a new crime.
The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.
This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.