In line 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 scenario that “AT&T is the designated COLR in lots of elements 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 with no new provider being designated as a COLR.”
“If AT&T’s proposal had been accepted as set forth in its utility, then no COLR can be required to supply primary service in your space,” the state company mentioned. “This doesn’t essentially imply that no carriers would, in reality, present service in your space—solely that they’d not be required to take action. Different outcomes are doable, reminiscent of one other provider in addition to AT&T volunteering to turn out 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 obtained a minimum of some aid from carrier-of-last-resort obligations within the different 20 states, specifically 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 hand over 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 supply 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 improve 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 an extra $25 monthly invoice improve.”
AT&T Complains That It Has to Preserve Two Networks
To get its utility authorised, “AT&T should exhibit 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 supply “tailor-made aid from its outdated COLR obligation.” The COLR obligation requires AT&T “to wastefully function and preserve 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-Cellular don’t face the identical obligation. Due to the COLR requirement, “AT&T California alone should proceed to satisfy each request to increase an outdated voice-centric community to anybody, wherever inside its footprint, even in circumstances the place the client has entry to a contemporary different,” AT&T mentioned.