AT&T, blocked by California regulators from scrapping landlines, launches double-barreled appeal at federal level

Seeking to override state authorities and cut landline service across California, utility giant AT&T filed a federal court complaint Wednesday against California regulators and submitted two petitions to the Federal Communications Commission, the latest volley in its years-long battle to withdraw the service.

Susan Santana, AT&T’s vice president of legislative affairs in California, said the company had been working with the state’s policymakers and legislators for years to stop providing landline service, “unfortunately to no avail.” Consumer advocates and others say landlines are key in disasters or in areas with poor cellular reception.

Landline disconnections could start as early as June 1, 2027, AT&T said.

The complaint against California’s Public Utilities Commission and the state Attorney General’s office asks for a federal court order to declare the state cannot stop AT&T from scuttling landlines. Neither the commission nor the Attorney General’s office responded immediately to questions about the legal action.

Thanks to its earlier monopoly status and California law requiring voice communications for all who want them, AT&T is, for large areas of the state, the "carrier of last resort" - the utility required to provide phone service to anyone in its service area.

The utility’s lengthy battle to end its landline business raised concerns that during earthquakes, fires, floods and storms, landline customers could be cut off when seeking help, because cell phone infrastructure and internet service are more vulnerable to damage or disruption by power outages.

In an extreme-wildfire-risk zone of the Berkeley Hills, author Cynthia Larson has had an AT&T landline for decades. She said she doesn’t trust broadband or cellular networks to work if there is a disaster, and she doesn’t want AT&T to “wiggle out” of providing landline service.

“It just seems like all they care about is their bottom line and they don’t care about people’s lives or safety, and this is at a time when we’re seeing so many weather-related disasters across the United States,” said Larson, 64.

Silicon Valley Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna noted Wednesday that many seniors rely on landlines. “AT&T should be required to offer it as an option,” Khanna said.

AT&T spends about $1 billion a year in California to maintain landline service, the lawsuit said. The company, which made $23.4 billion in profit last year according to its annual report, claimed in the lawsuit it could not invest in modernization and maintain landline service.

The filings follow a March order from the FCC, allowing telecom companies to appeal to overrule states when there is a conflict between state law and federal authorization to discontinue landlines. State and local rules forcing phone companies to maintain “deteriorating legacy networks” and provide “near-obsolete services” conflict with federal policies and goals to modernize phone systems, the order said.

Santana said landline customers in remote areas without reliable broadband internet or wireless phone service would be allowed to keep their landline service, but “we’re not going to be able to tell them they’re going to be able to keep it forever.”

AT&T argued in the complaint that broadband and wireless services offered by the company and its competitors “will leave no customer behind.”

“No one will be left without phone or 911 service, period,” Santana pledged.

Regina Costa, telecommunications policy director for The Utility Reform Network, said AT&T cannot be trusted to determine whether a household has reliable broadband or wireless options. Many customers have been persuaded by AT&T to end their landline service, only to find that their replacement services are lacking, Costa said.

Costa believes AT&T’s appeals to federal authorities are not a “slam dunk.”

“States are in a very strong position when it comes to having the Constitutional authority to protect the interests of people in a state,” Costa said.

Over generations, landlines - used now by just 3% of AT&T’s phone customers - have become hard to repair, as parts makers disappear, while the copper wires are prone to corrosion and vulnerable to theft, Santana said.

The complaint said fiber and wireless services can be restored much faster than landline services.

Alongside its appeal to the federal government, AT&T offered a commitment to invest $19 billion in California to deliver fiber-based internet if it is allowed to end landline service.

Santana acknowledged that “there will be incidents where grandma doesn’t want to give up her landline phone.” She presented the company’s solution: a white box connected to a broadband network or AT&T’s wireless service that a landline can plug into. The “AT&T Phone – Advanced” device features an antenna that can allow calls to go through even when cell connectivity is less than robust, and it has a battery backup, Santana said.

“Grandma gets to keep her same telephone number, and it comes with a 24-hour power backup, which is critical when there’s a power shutoff,” Santana said.

Fees for the Advanced service are about $45 a month, while typical landline service costs $80, Santana said. The device helps emergency providers pinpoint a user’s location if they need help.

escalating resistance in recent years

thousands of people voicing opposition

At the time, the Utility Reform Network estimated hundreds of thousands of households in the Bay Area and millions around California would lose landline service if the commission approved AT&T’s proposal.

In 2024, Bay Area members of Congress Ro Khanna, Barbara Lee, Anna Eshoo and Mark DeSaulnier joined 11 other California U.S. representatives in telling the commission in a letter that the proposal threatened public safety “in an area plagued by earthquakes, severe storms, floods, and fires, and that has a geography that often disrupts cellular service for days, if not weeks, at a time.”

That year, the commission rejected AT&T’s plan, after its administrative judge Thomas Glegola said services the utility claimed could replace landlines, including internet-based phone service and cell service, could not do the job.

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This story was originally published May 20, 2026 at 4:59 PM.