Customers worry their landlines are languishing as AT&T escalates bid to drop mandatory service in California

AT&T is escalating efforts to end its obligation to provide landline service in California, filing federal petitions and a lawsuit to preempt state rules. Customers report worsening service, outages, and rising prices, while AT&T insists it will maintain copper lines until regulatory approval to discontinue. Consumer advocates and users fear the company is deprioritizing landlines, especially in areas with unreliable cell coverage.

Getting your Trinity Audio //trinityaudio.ai player ready...AT&T has redoubled efforts to end its obligation to provide basic phone service, and especially landlines, across large swaths of California. After failed regulatory bids and a legislative workaround last year, the telecom giant has now taken its yearslong fight to the federal level and the courts. AT&T has insisted the state’s regulatory system, which requires the utility to provide reliable voice connection to anyone in its service areas, is outdated. And, the increasing resources needed to maintain landline infrastructure used by a shrinking number of Californians, the utility contends, divert from investments in better, modern alternatives. But, many who rely on copper-based landlines say the connection is still the only one they can depend on in areas that have spotty to no cellphone coverage. Storms and wildfires across the region have cut power and taken down cell and internet service with it, they note. The California Public Utilities Commission is actively working with AT&T and consumer advocates to modernize its rules governing the state’s “carriers of last resort,” of which AT&T is the largest, covering areas up and down the state. But meanwhile, in May https://www.mercurynews.com/2026/05/20/att-blocked-california-regulators-scrapping-landlines-federal/ , the telecom company filed petitions with the Federal Communications Commission, or FCC, and a federal lawsuit to preempt state requirements. While those salvos are still pending, there is mounting concern among customers and consumer advocates that existing landlines are being deprioritized, an assessment that AT&T rejects. “We will continue to make repairs to copper-based services until we have regulatory approval to discontinue service and will help ensure customers are informed about the process and their options for better connectivity options,” an AT&T spokesperson said. The Press Democrat asked readers who are local AT&T customers what they’ve experienced and received well over 50 calls and emails. A handful reported no problems with their landlines and satisfaction with service. Many others, however, reported a host of issues — rising prices, worsening call quality, outages that stretch for days or even weeks and months, hours on the phone with a string of customer service operators, missed repair appointments and mixed messages or no answers at all on the cause of damaged lines or the future of their service. Andrea Hadik-Barkoczy’s landline at her home just north of Fort Bragg has been down since May 20. Several others in her area reported the same. Cell service along the jagged Mendocino Coast is always a gamble, so Hadik-Barkoczy and her husband have held tight to their landline. Over three weeks, they’ve have called, emailed and filed complaints with utility regulators and even the state Attorney General’s Office. Twice, no one showed for repair appointments. “It’s like they’ve abandoned the line,” Hadik-Barkoczy said. “We feel abandoned.” She regrets now not flagging down an AT&T technician she passed working a job in Fort Bragg some days back, a solution many attest is the best way to get help. Another customer, Suzanne White, read aloud detailed notes from a recent attempt to restore service at her home west of Graton. She made a first call Jan. 15, then another on Jan. 17. On Jan. 20, she intercepted a technician on her road who made some adjustments and told her what to say when calling back for more help. She spoke with someone Feb. 4 who said a repair person would come Feb. 9. More calls followed on the 9th and 10th. No one arrived for a Feb. 17 appointment before a technician showed on Feb. 19. White got a $41 credit on her bill, which has risen to $113 per month. “It’s staggering, but I need a phone line, and I can’t rely on my cell,” she said. As new technologies have spread, people have mostly moved away from landlines, which are now used by just 3% of AT&T’s customers. Landline networks take much longer to repair than fiber and wireless technology, leading to longer disruptions, according to AT&T. Repeat copper theft https://www.pressdemocrat.com/2026/04/28/copper-wire-thefts-leaving-rural-sonoma-county-without-phone-internet-service/ has been a problem, causing 4,000 outages in California alone in 2025 at a cost of $50 million. Equipment that supports copper telecommunication lines is no longer being manufactured and is difficult to source, with the company resorting to purchasing from online resellers, a spokesperson said. The company spends $1 billion annually in California “to maintain a century-old telephone network that almost no one uses,” AT&T’s May legal complaint https://www.scribd.com/document/1041476381/aaa11? gl=1 xu0lft up MQ.. ga MTU1MTkwNTYxNS4xNzc5MzEwNTI2 ga Z4ZC50DED6 czE3NzkzMTA1MjQkbzEkZzEkdDE3NzkzMTA1MzMkajUxJGwwJGgw ga 8KZ8BV0P5W czE3NzkzMTA1MjUkbzEkZzEkdDE3NzkzMTA1MzMkajUyJGwwJGgw against the state said. AT&T made $23.4 billion in profit https://about.att.com/story/2026/4q-earnings-2025.html last year and returned $12 billion to shareholders. Doubling down In March, the FCC issued a ruling that state regulations can be preempted when in conflict with federal authorizations to discontinue landlines. The order https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/FCC-26-19A1.pdf echoed assertions that network modernization is hindered by the need to maintain aging legacy technology. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has expressed https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/03/fcc-chairman-brendan-carr-starts-granting-telecom-lobbys-wish-list/ similar views. “AT&T has taken that and run with it,” said Regina Costa, telecommunications policy director for the Utility Reform Network, a consumer advocacy group. The company filed its lawsuit May 20 https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/05/att-sues-california-in-attempt-to-shut-off-old-phone-network/ against California’s Public Utilities Commission and the state Attorney General in U.S. District Court for Southern California. It has also petitioned the FCC on a number of fronts to end landline service and essentially block California’s “carrier of last resort” rules. One of those petitions proposes https://www.cpuc.ca.gov/fccfiling ending landline service from 360 wire centers across the state, affecting roughly 200,000 residential and business customers after June 1, 2027, according to AT&T. The list https://www.cpuc.ca.gov/-/media/cpuc-website/divisions/news-and-outreach/documents/news-office/att-list-of-impacted-wire-centers.pdf includes portions of Sonoma, Napa, Mendocino, Marin and especially Lake counties. “It’s a lot of places,” Costa said, listing off Calistoga in Napa County and Middletown, Lakeport and Kelseyville in Lake County as examples. “All of these places have had wildfires, and the argument is from AT&T, ‘Well, they have alternative services,’ but the flip side of this is, are they reliable?” Many argue they’re not yet — “we found that out the hard way in Sonoma County,” Costa said. That’s why rural counties in particular and their representatives https://lostcoastoutpost.com/2024/feb/8/t-applies-end-landline-service/ have pushed back on AT&T’s efforts to date. Commitments bring questions During the 2019 Kincade Fire in Sonoma County, the only alerts Steve Hogle got came through his landline. “That fire ripped through our property,” Hogle said. “Had we not had a landline, we probably wouldn’t have known to evacuate.” Anderson Valley Fire Department Battalion Chief Clay Eubank has seen Mendocino County wildfires take out cell towers and communications for hours or more at a time. Even on a good day, he said, residents up and down the heavily tree-lined Highway 128 have little service outside of their landlines. “Technology is moving that direction. I know it’s coming. I totally get it,” Eubank said. “My objection is they don’t have the infrastructure in place yet to really serve everybody.” His department had wanted to move from landlines to fiber internet but the costs were high. After their landlines went down for two weeks, they got an internet-based phone line. A backup generator would kick in if power goes out. While some residents are committed to their landlines, others say they would be happy with an alternative, especially fiber-based connections, if they could count on it. That’s something AT&T says it’s committed to doing. In May, the telecom giant announced https://about.att.com/story/2026/att-makes-ca-commitment.html $19 billion in investments through 2030 to build out fiber to 4 million customers and strengthen wireless coverage across its service region. “This transition will be phased over multiple years and designed to be simple and seamless for customers with proactive outreach and support every step of the way, not a sudden change,” AT&T’s spokesperson said. “We are only upgrading customers in areas where there is reliable connectivity available from AT&T.” Advocates and customers have consistently questioned, however, how reliability is gauged and where exactly the company’s fiber and other investments will be targeted. Areas with fewer residents and rougher terrain have historically failed to attract infrastructure build out. AT&T did not provide specifics when asked. California’s regulations don’t specifically require “carriers of last resort” to offer landlines as “basic service.” If AT&T is guaranteeing that it will leave no customer behind anyway, “then why the need to get out of its obligation” to provide baseline service, Costa of the Utility Reform Network asked. “For a customer, the question is, ‘Should I bet my life on this, living in a high-fire zone, in a major earthquake zone?’ The answer is probably no,” she said. “The answer is, ‘AT&T: Act in good faith, step up to the plate, and address these issues honestly.’ Instead of trying to fight the rules, try to make the rules work.” The Golden State has been uniquely resistant to upgrading its rules, AT&T’s spokesperson said. “We’ve been working with California policymakers for over a decade to modernize the state’s communications infrastructure.” Utilities press Sacramento, CPUC In 2024, the Public Utilities Commission rejected AT&T’s bid to phase out landline service after deeming the company’s replacement plan inadequate. Last year, as deliberations at the Public Utilities Commission to modernize “carrier of last resort” rules continued, AT&T backed AB 470 https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billVotesClient.xhtml?bill id=202520260AB470 , a bill that mirrored some of its original proposals, spending $5 million in lobbying. The legislation was pushed by Californians for a Connected Future, a coalition of more than 100 business and community organizations, as well as US Telecom, a national trade association representing technology providers, including AT&T. The bill passed out of the state Assembly but failed to move forward in the Senate. Assemblyman Chris Rogers, D-Santa Rosa, eventually voted in favor of the bill, he said, after a series of amendments working with AT&T and groups like the Rural County Representatives of California to strengthen guardrails. Rogers said he got more community feedback on AB 470 than almost any other bill last session. “I heard overwhelmingly that they don’t want this,” he said referring to his constituents. “Our district feels left behind, and there’s a history of promises about what future infrastructure is going to look like … Couple broken promises with fire history, and it changes the tenor of the conversation.” Ultimately, he felt comfortable with the compromise reached through months of discussion and amendments. “That is not what they are now doing with this new process” at the federal level, Rogers said. Recently, in a May 18 ruling https://docs.cpuc.ca.gov/PublishedDocs/Efile/G000/M607/K071/607071247.PDF in the utilities commission’s ongoing proceeding, the administrative law judge chided AT&T. “AT&T California has stated that its Carrier of Last Resort COLR and basic service obligations have prevented its ability to modernize or replace its legacy copper telephone network facilities with fiber-optic and wireless network facilities,” the judge wrote. “More recently, AT&T California has provided contradictory data and statements suggesting that these modern network facilities are being used to comply with” those same requirements. The ruling noted AT&T had failed to provide timely responses and supplied incomplete and contradictory data on the services available to and relied on by customers in its territory. ‘Left alone’? On the ground, many customers say they continue to fight to maintain their service in the meantime. When Jacob Resneck tried to connect a severed landline at his Monte Rio home, where power and cell coverage has gone out for days in storms, he was told “flat out we don’t offer this service anymore,” he said. It wasn’t until he filed a complaint with the public utilities commission that he was routed to AT&T’s “Office of the President” and his service was restored. He appreciated the intervention, but lodged his larger concern: They “helped me as an individual consumer, but not with the systemic problem of AT&T turning people away from an essential service,” he said. Resneck worries about people who are older or less adept with technology or don’t have the time or “zealotry” to persist through a maze of customer service agents, complaint portals and mixed messages. At a loss with downed landlines, a few readers who reached out to The Press Democrat described foregoing service altogether in their homes or driving closer into town to make calls when necessary. After The Press Democrat passed along the information to AT&T of several people currently experiencing prolonged outages, at least three people reported restored service within two days, including Hadik-Barkoczy near Fort Bragg and a woman outside Sebastopol whose service had been out six months. Like many others, in May, Hogle outside of Healdsburg received a letter from AT&T notifying him that his landline would be discontinued on or after June 1, 2027. “We know how important it is to keep your phone number and stay connected, and we’re here to make this transition as easy as possible for you,” the notice said, walking him through the upgrade to AT&T “Phone – Advanced,” a line that works over wireless networks with antennas that boost signals. The setup comes with 24 hours of backup power. The assurances brought Hogle little comfort. “We’re going to be left alone if we don’t have our landline, no matter what they say, and it’s going to jeopardize a lot of people’s safety,” he said. “This is a responsibility they signed up for. To me, they have no excuse not to see us through.” You can reach senior reporter Marisa Endicott at 707-521-5470 or marisa.endicott@pressdemocrat.com. On X @marisaendicott and Facebook @InYourCornerTPD. How to weigh in with the FCC To provide comments on AT&T’s FCC petitions, go to www.fcc.gov/ecfs/filings/express https://www.fcc.gov/ecfs/filings/express Enter the name of the proceeding you want to comment on: - 26-125: AT&T’s request for federal preemption of California “carrier of last resort” requirement comments due June 22 - 26-120 & 26-121: AT&T’s request to discontinue residential and business landlines comments due June 15 - 26-123: AT&T’s request to withdraw from “eligible telecommunications carrier” designation and federal Lifeline program comments due June 22