Landlines In CA May Be Facing Their Death Blow: What To Know

ORANGE COUNTY, CA — Landline telephone services could be discontinued for many in the Golden State after AT&T filed a petition that would allow it to stop servicing traditional landlines in California.

AT&T is one of the largest providers in the Golden State, and the move is part of a larger shift toward advanced networks that don't work as well with landlines. Currently, AT&T is required by California to provide landline services. If it's freed from the requirement to provide landline services, other telecom companies may follow suit.

In petitioning to be free from the mandate, AT&T called landlines a “historical curiosity that's no longer necessary.”

According to AT&T, the cost of maintaining its traditional copper cable for landlines is costly, and providers are moving toward offering fiber optics and ethernet access, in addition to retiring older equipment, which includes copper wires.

"We've seen a precipitous decline in demand for telephone services provided over our copper networks," AT&T officials told CNN. "We are focused on enhancing our network with more advanced, higher speed technologies like fiber and wireless, which consumers are demanding."

AT&T hasn't announced plans to cut off landline service. However, being freed from the requirement to service landlines opens a pathway for AT&T to drop the service at any point.

For consumers clinging to their landlines, the move may mean higher costs and less reliable service as carriers increasingly rely on costly workarounds to serve them.

"AT&T is a 'carrier of last resort' and, thereby, required to provide 'plain old telephone service,' also known as POTS or landline phone service," the petition read. "If [the petition] is approved by CPUC, over 580,000 affected AT&T customers would be left with fewer options in terms of choice, quality and affordability."

The petition has its share of critics including South Bay Assemblymember Gail Pellerin, who wrote the CPUC and cited the region's catastrophic CZU Fire in 2020 among the many disasters where landlines proved indispensable, according to NBC Bay Area.

“In a power outage, they don’t have access to their cell phones. They don’t have access to the internet,” she told NBC Bay Area. “And it’s critically important if they are making a call out for emergencies or call their family to let them know they’re safe or call work to let them know they can’t come in.”

According to a 2109 study by HireAHelper, 29.8% of California homes still have a landline — two percent lower than the national average. That's about 3,970,100 homes. California households with landlines tend to skew older with more than 45 percent of customers 55 and older retaining their landlines, according to the study. Among Americans 75 and older, 75% still use landlines.

Many people still have landlines because they are frequently bundled with cell, internet and cable service packages.

The California Public Utilities Commission will hold three in-person meetings and one virtual public forum in the next few weeks for AT&T customers to discuss the potential discontinuation of copper landline phone service across the state.

California residents can see whether or not their home will be affected by clicking this link.

Public comments may also be submitted here.