DALLAS— Seeking permission to retire California’s aging copper telephone network, AT&T assured regulators this week that its proposed wireless replacement will provide reliable phone service to nearly every rural resident fortunate enough to live somewhere that does not actually need a wireless replacement.
The telecommunications giant said its new AT&T Phone Advanced service would deliver the same essential function as a traditional landline, except that instead of operating through a physical wire running directly to the home, it would rely on California’s famously flawless cellular coverage, dependable electrical grid, wildfire-resistant towers, earthquake-proof infrastructure, and the customer standing beside a west-facing window while holding the receiver above their head.
“This is not about abandoning customers,” said an AT&T spokesperson, speaking from a conference room with fiber internet, redundant power supplies, five bars of cellular reception, and no nearby mountains. “This is about transitioning them to a modern, exciting communications platform that may work whenever the weather is pleasant and nothing has gone wrong.”
AT&T has asked the Federal Communications Commission and the California Public Utilities Commission for permission to discontinue portions of its traditional copper-based telephone service. It has also sued the CPUC, reportedly after regulators made the unreasonable demand that AT&T prove its replacement service would function before being allowed to replace the existing service.
Sources confirmed that AT&T executives were stunned by the request.
“Prove it works?” said one company official. “What is this, engineering?”
Consumer advocates have raised concerns that AT&T Phone Advanced uses the company’s cellular network, which may not reach isolated homes in mountainous, forested, desert, or otherwise inconvenient portions of California.
AT&T responded that customers unable to receive a signal would still enjoy access to several valuable features, including a sleek plastic box, an easy-to-read instruction manual, and the comforting knowledge that shareholders were no longer paying to maintain copper lines near their homes.
The company emphasized that only about 3% of the California households it serves still use traditional telephone service.
“Three percent is practically nobody,” said AT&T vice president of strategic statistical minimization Gary Wexler. “That’s only hundreds of thousands of human beings scattered across areas where emergency communications may be especially important.”
Wexler added that many of those residents are older adults, rural families, people with limited broadband access, and customers living in regions vulnerable to fires and earthquakes.
“So, you know, not really our core demographic of people upgrading their iPhone every September.”
Service Guaranteed During All Emergencies That Leave the Cellular Network Fully Operational
Representatives from The Utility Reform Network, or TURN, noted that traditional copper lines can offer a level of reliability that wireless services may not match, particularly during prolonged power outages or natural disasters.
AT&T dismissed the criticism, explaining that customers could simply use the cellular network during an emergency, unless the cellular network was affected by the emergency, in which case customers could use their home internet, unless their home internet was also affected, in which case they could calmly reflect on the tremendous progress telecommunications technology has made.
“Our replacement system has multiple layers of redundancy,” said AT&T disaster preparedness specialist Nicole Trammel. “First, customers can try the phone. Then they can turn the box off and back on. Then they can walk outside. Then they can drive several miles toward the nearest highway until they get a bar.”
Trammel said customers should prepare for wildfire season by maintaining a fully charged backup battery, an emergency generator, additional fuel, a satellite phone, a portable radio, and a second residence located closer to an AT&T tower.
“At that point,” she added, “the transition from landline service should be virtually seamless.”
The company said AT&T Phone Advanced had already been approved as an alternative in states including North Carolina, Oklahoma, Mississippi, and Alabama, demonstrating conclusively that the service would perform identically across California’s mountains, deserts, forests, fault lines, canyons, and enormous stretches of sparsely populated terrain.
“California is just Alabama rotated 90 degrees,” explained one AT&T network planner while closing a topographical map he had accidentally opened.
Consumer advocates have asked AT&T to test the service in California’s most remote and disaster-prone areas before copper service is eliminated.
AT&T said such testing would be unnecessarily burdensome and could potentially generate data.
“We already have powerful evidence,” said the company. “We have projections, commitments, forward-looking statements, promotional graphics, and a photograph of a smiling rancher holding a tablet.”
$19 Billion Investment Expected to Reach Numerous Places AT&T Was Already Planning to Invest In
To reassure California officials, AT&T announced that it would invest $19 billion in the state’s fiber and wireless networks through 2030.
The company described the commitment as its largest-ever infrastructure investment pledge in California and promised it would help connect more residents to high-speed networks.
When asked where the new fiber would be installed, AT&T officials confirmed it would be deployed strategically throughout the state’s most fiber-appropriate areas.
“Fiber will go wherever our proprietary models identify a strong combination of population density, revenue potential, construction feasibility, existing infrastructure, and people who already have several internet choices,” said AT&T infrastructure executive Paul McCluskey.
Asked whether the company would extend fiber to remote households currently dependent on copper telephone lines, McCluskey nodded thoughtfully before pretending to receive an urgent call.
AT&T later clarified that it had not yet provided a detailed public map showing exactly where the fiber investments would occur.
“Announcing where the money is going could create unrealistic expectations that the money is going somewhere,” the company said.
Executives stressed that $19 billion was an extremely large number and should therefore resolve any remaining technical questions.
“Once a press release contains the word ‘billion,’ the conversation traditionally ends,” said AT&T government relations director Mallory Finch. “At that point, regulators are expected to thank us for innovating.”
According to company projections, the investment will expand fiber service, improve wireless capacity, strengthen network performance, create economic opportunity, power the next era of innovation, unlock California’s digital future, and generate at least six additional phrases containing the word “connectivity.”
Regulators Asked to Approve Plan Before Becoming Distracted by Specifics
On June 29, AT&T secured a procedural victory when the FCC allowed one of its applications to discontinue certain California services to be automatically granted following a comment period.
AT&T celebrated the development as proof that the federal government had carefully reviewed the issue by allowing a deadline to pass.
“This rigorous process confirms that our plan has satisfied the nation’s highest regulatory standard: nobody stopped the clock in time,” the company said.
However, disputes remain before the CPUC and in California courts, where attorneys are expected to spend years determining whether a communications company may stop providing a communications service without first demonstrating that the replacement provides communication.
Legal experts said the case involves complex questions of federal authority, state authority, public utility obligations, consumer protections, infrastructure policy, and how many billable hours can be extracted from the phrase “carrier of last resort.”
AT&T has argued that maintaining copper networks is expensive, outdated, and energy inefficient.
Consumer advocates countered that “old” and “expensive” are not necessarily synonyms for “unnecessary,” especially when the old equipment is the only thing connecting someone to emergency services.
The company responded by noting that copper technology was developed many decades ago, unlike modern wireless technology, whose towers are knocked offline by entirely contemporary disasters.
“We cannot continue pouring resources into legacy infrastructure forever,” said AT&T chief modernization officer Derek Salazar. “Those funds could be better invested in modern infrastructure that we may eventually declare legacy infrastructure.”
Salazar added that AT&T had no desire to leave anyone disconnected.
“We want every Californian to have reliable access to communications,” he said. “Ideally through a service they purchase from us, using equipment they rent from us, connected to a network we are no longer legally required to provide to them.”
Rural Customers Encouraged to Upgrade Their Geography
In preparation for the copper retirement, AT&T has begun educating affected customers about available alternatives.
Company literature reportedly recommends that customers verify cellular coverage at their homes before switching, which rural residents can accomplish by checking the signal strength on the cellular phones they do not have because cellular service does not work at their homes.
Customers who experience weak reception may be eligible for additional solutions, such as placing the AT&T Phone Advanced unit in an attic, mounting it near a window, installing an external antenna, removing surrounding vegetation, flattening an adjacent mountain, or moving to Sacramento.
“Connectivity is a shared responsibility,” an AT&T support representative explained. “We provide the network, and the customer provides a home located within range of it.”
The company is also expected to introduce a new rural service guarantee promising that no customer will lose access without first receiving between four and 17 letters explaining why losing access represents an upgrade.
One planned mailing reads:
GOOD NEWS: YOUR PHONE SERVICE IS EVOLVING.
Your dependable copper connection is being replaced with an advanced wireless device requiring cellular reception, household power, backup power, periodic software updates, and favorable terrain.Please do not call us with questions during an outage.
AT&T said customers dissatisfied with the replacement could contact customer service, where a representative would explain that copper service is no longer available and offer to bundle the nonfunctioning phone with DIRECTV.
Company Vows Nobody Will Be Left Behind Except Unprofitable Statistical Outliers
AT&T maintains that it will offer affordable alternatives and ensure that customers remain connected throughout the transition.
Consumer advocates say the central issue is not whether AT&T uses copper, fiber, wireless, carrier pigeons, or two tin cans tied together with premium-grade string. The issue is whether the replacement is as reliable as the service being removed.
AT&T agreed that reliability is important but cautioned against defining it too rigidly.
“In the old days, reliability meant picking up the phone and hearing a dial tone,” said spokesperson Finch. “Today, reliability is more of a journey.”
Finch added that the company would continue listening to consumers, regulators, emergency officials, rural communities, and its own quarterly earnings calls before determining which feedback carried the greatest fiduciary weight.
At press time, AT&T had announced a pilot program in which executives would spend one weekend in a remote California cabin equipped exclusively with AT&T Phone Advanced.
The program was canceled after the executives discovered the cabin did not have Wi-Fi.