AT&T loses key ruling in bid to stop offering basic phone service in California

California said its rules are “technology-neutral,” allowing AT&T to use wired, wireless, and/or VoIP service to fulfill its COLR obligations. While AT&T says its wireless AT&T Phone-Advanced (AP-A) is a suitable replacement for copper, California said that “AT&T has never formally sought to substitute POTS with AP-A.”

AT&T “does not want to meet its COLR obligations through AP-A; it seeks relief from meeting them at all,” California said. “That is why AT&T does not claim in this lawsuit, either, that it will offer basic service through AP-A (or any other service) instead.”

AT&T doesn’t promise that AP-A will meet state requirements for basic service, California said. Those state requirements include flat-rate options for unlimited voice calls, discounted Lifeline rates for eligible low-income customers, and telephone relay service for the deaf and hard of hearing, California said.

AT&T seeking more help from FCC

The FCC grandfathering order that AT&T cited in its lawsuit applied industry-wide, not specifically to AT&T. But AT&T also asked the FCC for an order specifically preempting California’s COLR mandates and related requirements, such as tariffing and Lifeline participation rules.

California told the FCC that AT&T is lying when it claims that state rules prevent it from replacing copper with fiber. The Utility Reform Network, an advocacy group in California, told the FCC that AT&T’s wireless home phone service is “an ill-suited replacement for existing legacy infrastructure.”

The advocacy group said that “while AP-A has been approved in other states, none of those states have a remotely similar topographical range or extreme weather events to California. This necessarily means that those residents who live on mountains, in valleys, or other heavily forested areas will likely not have access to a reliable cellular signal.” Power outages from wildfires and earthquakes may last for days or weeks, but AP-A comes with only a 24-hour backup battery, the group said.

In addition to seeking a preemption order, AT&T asked the FCC for permission to discontinue copper-based service to 184,000 residential customers and 15,000 business customers on June 1, 2027. Those petitions were granted automatically after a comment period, but the FCC has not yet acted on AT&T’s request to preempt California rules. Even if the FCC grants AT&T’s petition to preempt state rules, California could challenge such an order in court.