AT&T is sending out letters warning they want to kill virtually all landlines (and perhaps related data circuits where fiber is unavailable) across essentially their entire coverage area throughout California. Related CPUC meetings will be taking place through March.
Landlines provide crucial services for individuals, businesses, and other organizations in a wide variety of situations -- not just emergencies when cellular and Internet service tends to rapidly fail, but also for vast numbers of people in areas with poor (or no) reliable cell service, no fiber, etc.
Landlines often provide the only available communication in a wide variety of security and safety situations, from elevators to interior spaces of all sorts where cell service simply doesn't work.
Many disabled and other persons have crucial equipment that depends on landlines. Often they are not tech-savvy and do not have friends or relatives to help them through forced technology changes.
AT&T has been shirking its public safety responsibilities for years, while still leveraging their effective monopoly on services in so many areas.
Their new effort must be stopped. I'll have much more to say about this as the situation progresses.
***** Full text of California PUC announcement of AT&T proposal to abandon California subscribers *****
As I discussed a couple of days ago. This electronic version of the physical letters that AT&T has been sending out are now starting to hit emails associated with AT&T accounts. -L
A Message from the California Public Utilities Commission
Notice of Public Hearings
Application 23-03-002 and Application 23-03-003
The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) would like to hear from you. You are invited to participate in a public forum, also called a Public Participation Hearing (PPH), about the following applications:
• Application 23-03-002: regarding the application of AT&T California to Withdraw its Eligible Telecommunications Carrier Designation
• Application 23-03-003: regarding the application of AT&T California for Relief from its Carrier of Last Resort Obligation
During the hearing, you can make comments, raise concerns, and speak to a CPUC Administrative Law Judge.
Where and when will these Public Participation Hearings be held?
In-Person Public Participation Hearing, February 6, 2024, at 2:00 p.m.
Clovis City Council Chambers
1033 5th St., Clovis, CA 93612
In-Person Public Participation Hearing, February 6, 2024, at 6:00 p.m.
Clovis City Council Chambers
1033 5th St., Clovis, CA 93612
In-Person Public Participation Hearing, February 22, 2024, at 2:00 p.m.
Mendocino County Board of Supervisors
501 Low Gap Road, Room 1070, Ukiah, CA 95482
In-Person Public Participation Hearing, February 22, 2024, at 6:00 p.m.
Mendocino County Board of Supervisors
501 Low Gap Road, Room 1070, Ukiah, CA 95482
In-Person Public Participation Hearing, March 14, 2024, at 2:00 p.m.
Indio City Hall Council Chambers
100 Civic Center Mall, Indio, CA 92201
In-Person Public Participation Hearing, March 14, 2024, at 6:00 p.m.
Indio City Hall Council Chambers
100 Civic Center Mall, Indio, CA 92201
Remote Public Participation Hearing, March 19, 2024, at 2:00 p.m.
https://adminmonitor.com/ca/cpuc/hearing/20240319
Toll-free phone number: 1-800-857-1917; code: 6032788#
Remote Public Participation Hearing, March 19, 2024, at 6:00 p.m.
https://adminmonitor.com/ca/cpuc/hearing/202403192
Toll-free phone number: 1-800-857-1917; code: 6032788#
Why am I receiving this notice?
The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) wants to hear from you and has asked AT&T to provide this notice. In-person and virtual public forums have been scheduled to hear your comments, concerns and opinions regarding the application of AT&T California to withdraw its Eligible Telecommunications Carrier designation, and the application of AT&T California for relief from its Carrier of Last Resort Obligations. Your participation by providing comments can help inform the CPUC’s decision. You can either attend any of the in-person forums or, for the remote forums, watch a livestream of the hearings or participate via telephone. You can also submit comments by mail or post them on the CPUC’s public comment portal.
How does this process work?
This application is assigned to a CPUC Administrative Law Judge and a Commissioner, who will consider proposals and evidence presented during formal processes, and then issue a proposed decision. Any CPUC Commissioner may sponsor an alternate decision with a different outcome. The proposed decision, and any alternate decisions, will be discussed and voted upon by the CPUC Commissioners at a public CPUC Voting Meeting.
Parties involved in the rulemaking include the Public Advocates Office. To find out more about the Public Advocates Office, you may contact them at: 1.415.703.1584, email PublicAdvocatesOffice@cpuc.ca.gov or visit PublicAdvocates.cpuc.ca.gov.
Make a written public comment:
Please visit apps.cpuc.ca.gov/c/A2303002 to submit a public comment about AT&T California’s application to withdraw its Eligible Telecommunications Carrier designation.
Please visit apps.cpuc.ca.gov/c/A2303003 to submit a public comment about AT&T California’s application for relief from its Carrier of Last Resort Obligations.
Contact the CPUC:
You may also mail written comments to the CPUC’s Public Advisor’s address below. For more information on participating in the public hearing, submitting comments, to request special assistance, or to request a non-English or Spanish language interpreter, please contact the CPUC’s Public Advisor’s Office at least five days prior to the hearings.
CPUC Public Advisor’s Office
505 Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94102
Phone: 1.866.849.8390 (toll-free) or 1.415.703.2074
Email: Public.Advisor@cpuc.ca.gov
Please reference Application 22-03-002 or Application 22-03-003 in any communications you have with the CPUC regarding this matter.
@lauren I think that you are missing that all of what you are referring to is rooted in the people that we voted to empower to government.
It's not about AT&T.
They are merely complying with the situation that we all voted for, the regulations that were promulgated based on our votes.
Lied? No I don't think so. I have watched over and over again when the people that we voted into power, elected and re-elected, set up the incentives for them to do exactly what they did.
And let me emphasize re-elected. We keep re-electing the people who set the stage for this, so apparently we are happy with it.
I think we should stop re-electing these people, but I'm in the minority here, and I really think we should emphasize that we should stop re-electing the officials who put us into situations that we don't like.
@volkris The fact that elected officials permitted corporations like AT&T to lie over so many years does not make those lies any less lies. They were not forced to lie, they chose to lie.
@lauren again my point is that we elected those people. And we re-elected those people. So apparently we were okay with it.
It all comes down to we get the government that we vote for.
@volkris As a practical matter, lobbying by Big Telecom has distorted the process dramatically, affecting BOTH parties. But also as a practical matter, the way people vote is not typically based on issues such as we are discussing, but on broader economic ones, for example. It also doesn't help that these matters are extremely technical, unlike the simple slogans used by candidates and elected officials.
@lauren but none of that changes that we elect and re-elect these same people, showing that we approve of the way they have been operating in office.
Like, yeah we can make all the excuses that we want for what they are doing but at the end of the day, we are re-electing these people.
I think we should not be re-electing these people. I think that we should hold them accountable for what they have done and not get distracted by these side stories, but that's just me.
For example, if you want to say that some politician is taking bribes but we re-elect that politician, the problem there isn't the bribe the problem is that we reelected the person taking the bribes.
We really need to stop re-electing the same politicians doing bad things, and I think we really need to focus on that and not let them pass the buck.
@volkris A fundamental problem, I personally believe, is that the political sphere is no longer (to the extent it ever was) attractive to the kind of people we as a society presumably would prefer to be in government. If you want to consider that to be something of a condemnation of politics in general I won't argue the point.
@volkris AT&T isn't just some random corporation. AT&T has had effective monopoly status forever, got rate increases based on promises never delivered (like fiber deployments), and used that to lock out serious competition for decades. They've lied consistently in many realms while raking in obscene profits and now want to abandon the communities they've made most dependent. Yes, the problem IS AT&T. 100%. Don't drink their propaganda Kool-Aid. I've been dealing with them forever. I know those guys all too well.