In keeping with AT&T’s utility, the corporate has to finish the Part 214 discontinuance course of run by the Federal Communications Fee with a view to totally discontinue service in any given space.
CPUC says in a abstract of the state of affairs that “AT&T is the designated COLR in lots of components of the state and is the biggest COLR in California.” This implies “the corporate should present conventional landline phone service to any potential buyer in that service territory. AT&T is proposing to withdraw because the COLR in your space and not using a new provider being designated as a COLR.”
“If AT&T’s proposal have been accepted as set forth in its utility, then no COLR could be required to offer fundamental service in your space,” the state company mentioned. “This doesn’t essentially imply that no carriers would, the truth is, present service in your space—solely that they might not be required to take action. Different outcomes are potential, corresponding to one other provider in addition to AT&T volunteering to grow to be the COLR in your space, or the CPUC denying AT&T’s proposal.”
AT&T Was Deregulated in Many States
There are 21 states in AT&T’s wireline service territory. AT&T’s California utility mentioned it has already acquired at the least some reduction from carrier-of-last-resort obligations within the different 20 states, particularly Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Wisconsin.
Along with its COLR utility, AT&T has requested California to let it surrender its designation as an Eligible Telecommunications Provider (ETC). The ETC designation permits AT&T to obtain cash from the US authorities’s Common Service Fund, together with the federal Lifeline program. AT&T would nonetheless be eligible for California’s state Lifeline program.
“By relinquishing its ETC designation, AT&T will not be eligible to obtain federal assist to offer Lifeline, which may doubtlessly have an effect on all present AT&T Lifeline prospects… For a family receiving federal Lifeline from AT&T, the invoice may enhance by $5.25 monthly for voice-only service, or $9.25 monthly for bundled or Web service,” the CPUC mentioned. “Along with these quantities, a family on Tribal lands receiving federal Lifeline from AT&T may expertise a further $25 monthly invoice enhance.”
AT&T Complains That It Has to Preserve Two Networks
To get its utility accepted, “AT&T should show that one other ETC supplier can present common assist within the areas the place AT&T needs to give up its ETC designation,” the CPUC mentioned.
AT&T argued in its utility that it’s searching for solely “modest regulatory reforms” to offer “tailor-made reduction from its outdated COLR obligation.” The COLR obligation requires AT&T “to wastefully function and keep two duplicative networks: one, an antiquated, narrowband community with an ever-dwindling base of subscribers, and the opposite, a forward-looking, fiber and wi-fi broadband community,” the corporate mentioned.
AT&T complained that Comcast, Constitution, Cox, Verizon, and T-Cell don’t face the identical obligation. Due to the COLR requirement, “AT&T California alone should proceed to meet each request to increase an outdated voice-centric community to anybody, anyplace inside its footprint, even in instances the place the client has entry to a contemporary various,” AT&T mentioned.
