- AT&T is pursuing its goal through the FCC, CPUC and the courts
- It’s also pledging to spend $19 billion more on connectivity in California
- But the consumer group TURN wants to see hard evidence that people in remote areas won’t be cut off from reliable phone service
Petitions and appeals are flying between AT&T and government groups as AT&T accelerates its agenda to get out of the landline telephone business in California. But AT&T hasn’t provided data to prove that its alternative connectivity solution will definitely work in the most remote locations of the state, according to a consumer advocacy group.
AT&T has filed applications with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and with the California Public Utility Commission (CPUC), and it’s also filed lawsuits against CPUC.
On June 29, AT&T secured a win with the FCC, when it allowed AT&T’s application to discontinue certain services in California to be automatically granted after a comment period.
However, that’s far from the end of the dispute, given the fact that there are still ongoing matters with CPUC and in court.
Fierce spoke with Ryan Johnston, regulatory attorney for telecommunications at TURN- The Utility Reform Network. TURN is a California-based nonprofit consumer advocacy organization. Fierce asked how this is all going to shake out?
Johnston said, “There are people that get paid a lot more than me to read those tea leaves, and at this point, it is going to be very difficult to say.” He said the FCC will have to take more comments and write an order and get it published in the Federal Register before it can then be challenged. And the two current lawsuits in California are only just beginning.
In the meantime, AT&T is still obliged to provide its copper-based telephone service to customers who choose it.
Point counter point
AT&T really, really wants to discontinue landline copper-based phone services in California. Not only is it aggressively pursuing permission to do so via all the means mentioned above, but on May 20, 2026, AT&T committed to invest $19 billion in California through 2030 to connect more Californians to its networks.
“AT&T is proud to commit $19 billion of investment in California’s fiber and wireless networks by the end of 2030, building the high-speed connectivity required for the next era of innovation and economic growth in the state,” said AT&T. “We’re making our largest-ever infrastructure investment commitment in the state and investing $3 billion more in the next five years (2026-2030) than the previous five (2021-2025) – reaching $35 billion invested over 10 years (2021-2030) in California’s network.”
AT&T also says it will offer affordable options and make sure that no one goes unconnected. The company says only 3% of households it serves in California still use traditional phone service. “We are beginning the process to upgrade our customers to fiber and wireless services and discontinue energy inefficient copper-based services in parts of the state on or after June 1, 2027.”
But Johnston says TURN and others take issue with a lot of AT&T’s pledges.
He said AT&T’s alternative for people who currently rely on its legacy telephone service is AT&T Phone Advanced. He said it’s a voice-over-IP (VoIP) service that “essentially runs on their cellular network” and connects to a box in the customer’s home. He said the wireless aspect of the service is a problem in some places in California that are super remote and vulnerable to things in the state such as wildfires and earthquakes.
“So there are plenty of places in California where this service just won't work because the folks on the ground aren't going to be able to receive a cell signal,” said Johnston. “And our issue there is: we can't have an alternative service that is supposed to be everybody's last-resort service if they can't get it, and it relies on wireless.”
As an aside, Brightspeed is using a similar VoIP service to transition people off legacy copper networks in its service territory on the East Coast.
Johnston said, “One of the things that gives us pause is that AT&T has claimed that the FCC has given it authority to use this service as a reliable alternative in a bunch of other states, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Alabama, but we haven't seen it tested in California that has all of those issues with natural disasters and that has that massive topographical range.”
He said there are already some AT&T customers in California using the AT&T Phone Advanced, but AT&T has not provided any data or proof to CPUC that the technology definitely works in the most remote areas that TURN is concerned about.
“I would love to see them do a study and be able to look over what the results of that would be,” said Johnston.
AT&T is also pledging to deploy a lot more fiber broadband in California. But Johnston said, “AT&T has not told us where they're going to put that fiber.” He noted that fiber is super expensive to deploy to the most remote areas.
In conclusion Johnston said, “Our position is that this is not a question of what technology is used to connect these folks. This is a question of: are they going to receive something that is just as reliable as the thing that they have now? When AT&T quantitatively proves that they can do that, far be it from us to stop them.”
**Update: After this story published an AT&T spokesperson said, "The FCC has confirmed that AP-A meets its standards as an adequate replacement. In order for the FCC to approve our discontinuance applications, reliable connectivity must be provided in those locations."
See more stories about AT&T and California:
AT&T wants off the hook for California landline phone service
AT&T wants off the hook for California landline phone service