FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Wednesday, February 14th 2024

Contact: Josh Hart, Spokesperson

Plumas Wired! / Save Landlines! 

E-mail: info@plumaswired.org

Web: http://plumaswired.org 

http://savelandlines.org

AT&T Landlines Under Immediate Threat in California; Residents Point to Reliable Copper Network’s Essential Role Every Day and Especially During Emergencies

SAN FRANCISCO—The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) is considering a formal request by AT&T to eliminate Carrier of Last Resort (COLR) regulations that require the company to provide landline telephone service to customers in its service area. Such a move would likely mean the end of the traditional telephone network for most residents in California, a controversial policy opposed by many consumer and safety groups, who say such a move is preposterous and that landlines are needed now more than ever, as climate emergencies worsen and the digital divide grows wider. 

Plumas Wired!, Save Landlines! and many other groups are encouraging residents to voice their opinion straight away to the CPUC, consider attending one of the two Feb. 22nd public hearings in Ukiah, CA and plan to call in to one of the two CPUC virtual public hearings on March 19th. More info here.

AT&T recently mailed landline telephone users a notice about the pending decision and hearings. Many customers who have received notices are voicing their alarm online and in community forums. Josh Hart MSc, Spokesperson for Plumas Wired and Save Landlines, two of the groups in favor of keeping landline service, is encouraging people to speak out now while there is still time to save this critical communication infrastructure.  People are urged to speak out to local and state officials and the CPUC in writing and speak at upcoming in-person and remotely-held hearings, as well as share on social media.

According to Hart, “In many cases, especially in rural areas like Plumas County, there simply is no viable alternative to AT&T landline service.” Some residents rely on their landline not only for a voice connection but for basic dial up internet as well. 

“In spite of this, AT&T has designated many of these areas as those in which it is seeking ‘COLR relief’ (or the option to discontinue service to those who most need it). AT&T claims to be bridging the digital divide but is in fact widening the digital divide and endangering public safety.”

Many seniors especially are disinclined or unable to use smartphones. The quality of landline audio is far superior to the alternatives. VoIP or Voice Over Internet Protocol has problems such as unreliable connectivity, calls dropping out, and likelihood of failure in an emergency or power outage.

Nevertheless, telecom companies have been pushing lower quality and less reliable wireless and VoIP

services because they are cheaper and more profitable.

Advocates point out that even those who don’t use landlines themselves may benefit from having them in the neighborhood during extended cell tower outages in an emergency such as a wildfire. In recent fires, cell towers have burned, preventing evacuation orders from being received and putting lives at risk “Landlines are lifelines everyday and in an emergency,” said Hart. “If the state moves forward with allowing AT&T to have their way, community safety will suffer and people’s telecommunications choices will be dangerously narrowed.”

Pro-landline groups compare the current threat against landlines to the coordinated buy out of electric trolleys in the 1940’s and 1950’s, and replacement with less popular buses. It has now cost governments billions of dollars to replace these lost streetcars with their modern equivalent, light rail. “Taxpayers have paid billions of dollars over decades to replace critical transportation infrastructure that was lost when weak politicians allowed General Motors and other corporations to destroy competition for buses and cars in the 1950’s. Let’s hope Gavin Newsom’s CPUC does not repeat the mistake with our critical communication infrastructure.”

Landline advocates also point out that cell phones are increasingly linked with deadly brain and other tumors of the head.

A significant portion of the population (likely 5% or more) reports suffering pain and discomfort when exposed to RF microwave radiation used commonly in wireless technology. Landline advocates say the reasonable course of action is not to force people to use wireless when it causes them pain.

Utilities and regulators have been aware for many years that wireless microwave radiation is harmful. In September of 2010, Michael Peevey, who was at the time President of the CPUC, admitted to PG&E executives in writing that he believed that people suffer pain from smart meter, cell phone, and other microwave signals (this e-mail was obtained through a Public Records Act Request):

“There really are people who feel pain, etc., related to EMF, etc., and rather than have them become hysterical, etc., I would quietly leave them alone. Kick it around…” 

Landline advocates point out that many services identified by AT&T as alternatives to landline service are simply not accessible to those with medical sensitivities to wireless radiation.

Emergency communication is critical. While cell towers have little to no battery back up when the power goes out and often burn in wildfires, landlines are more resilient and offer a quality, reliable voice option, crucial when cell and internet service fails. Landlines also identify the specific location for 911 responders, critical if a caller is incapacitated or unaware of their location.

“Landlines are more critical than ever, as the alternatives remain unreliable, hazardous, and inferior in quality. Wireless technology is also one of the fastest growing sources of carbon emissions, putting our climate at even greater peril. Everyone deserves a safe, reliable and affordable landline telephone. That’s why COLR was created. The loss of the landline network would risk public safety and push those already in the margins over the edge. We condemn it in the strongest possible terms.”

Actions to Take to Defend Landlines in California

Submit a comment to the docket itself. Please do this if you have not done so already. Brief is fine. (It may be helpful to have your statement ready to copy/paste.) https://apps.cpuc.ca.gov/apex/f?p=401:65:0::NO:RP,57,RIR:P5_PROCEEDING_SELECT:A2303003

–Call/email (as often as you’d like) the Public Advisor’s Office: https://www.cpuc.ca.gov/pao/

Email Commissioner Reynolds (assigned to the case). Remind him briefly and courteously about how essential landline service is to you (and/or a family member, friend). john.reynolds@cpuc.ca.gov

CPUC commissioners are appointed by and under the authority of the Governor. Let Newsom’s office hear your voice by email or phone:https://www.gov.ca.gov/contact/

Local leaders have also received notice of AT&T’s request. Let their offices know why you and others depend on copper landlines. Contact your own city/town council as well as your state senator and assembly member.

Sign and share this recently-started petition: https://www.change.org/p/save-landline-service-in-california

👫👫👫You might like to join this growing group: https://groups.io/g/savelandlines/

DON’T MISS: Public Participation Hearings specifically devoted to AT&T’s request to abandon landlines. The in-person hearings are at the Mendocino Board of Supervisors 501 Low Gap Rd, Ukiah, CA 95482 on Thursday, February 22nd at 2pm and 6pm.

The two virtual meetings will be held on March 19 at 2 p.m. and 6 p.m Please save one of those March 19 times. THIS WILL BE THE LAST CHANCE to make a case for preserving wired landline/legacy copper service as we know it. After March 19, the CPUC will make a decision.

About the hearings: https://www.cpuc.ca.gov/proceedings-and-rulemaking/cpuc-public-participation-hearings

(*Type CPUC Application A2303003 in the subject line of all email communications.)

Following is a letter from our friends at Stop Smart Meters! opposing the terrible California bill SB649.  Please spread the word and **contact your assemblymember today**

June 22nd, 2017

Assembly Member Cecilia M. Aguiar-Curry,
Chair of the Local Government Committee
1020 N Street, Room 157
Sacramento, California 95814

Dear Assemblymember Aguiar-Curry and colleagues,

I am writing to express—in the strongest possible terms—our opposition to SB 649. This bill threatens to disrupt the traditional, longstanding and constitutional role that our state’s local governments play in the planning process in determining where and if wireless facilities are appropriate in a given location. Unleashing the wireless industry to do as they please—virtually unregulated—will cost Californians and the state government dearly in terms of health care costs, environmental damage, and new and additional carbon emissions from the large and growing demand from wireless infrastructure for new electricity supplies.

On April 26th, Senator Robert Hertzberg spoke in the Senate Governance and Finance Committee- in response to scientific reports of cancer being caused by wireless, and the potentially vast health and mortality consequences of ubiquitous 5G development:

“We have automobiles. There was a 38,000 deaths in society last year – people dead, dead because of cars. Not just injured. But we say there’s a value to having an automobile. And we make these public policy decisions, you know, in terms of those balances.”

Ask yourselves this question: Is streaming fast netflix while you walk down the street (or even worse, while driving a car- a mortality multiplier) worth 38,000 deaths? 100,000 deaths? One million deaths? Please inform us of the details of this grim calculation if you intend to trade our lives for faster streaming wireless. It seems a fairly bad tradeoff to us- call us crazy tinfoil hats if you like.

How can a legislator make public policy “balances” that mean the difference between life and death when the issue has not even been properly debated or discussed in hearings that include expert testimony? These “balances” appear to involve the heavy thumb of the wireless industry on the scale in the form of “funding” for state legislators. Don’t take the bait- stand up for your constituents and our right to safe communities and strong local democratic oversight.

The California State Assembly must reject SB 649 and send a strong signal to the telecommunications giants that the backbone of our modern communication systems must be hard wired fiber, the fastest and most secure option available. The industry left to its own devices is going in the opposite direction, with AT&T threatening the landline telephone service that millions of Californians depend on for reliable access to emergency services and accurate 911 location transmission. Fiber to every home may cost more thank blanketing the state with high frequency radiation, but it is worth the investment, given that the long term health and mortality costs of blanketed 5G are unknown, and potentially very grim. A stain you don’t want on your legacy as lawmakers.

We need to extend fiber-optic lines to every home and business, provide wired (not wireless) internet in classrooms, and re-invest in our copper telephone landline network, which serves as a reliable and safe necessary alternative to power-grid dependent (and power grid hungry) communications like VOIP and cell service.

There is no longer any question whether wireless radiofrequency (RF) radiation- used in cellular communications- is harmful to humans. The U.S. National Toxicology Program- federally sponsored research- found last year that cell phone radiation is positively associated with cancerous brain and heart tumors in rats. The World Health Organization has classified RF as a Class 2B carcinogen. We are being flooded with reports of the real world consequences of these agencies’ alarming statements: insomnia, headaches, cancer, autism, and other serious and life changing ailments.

If this bill passes, wireless companies like Verizon and AT&T will claim the legal right to install cell sites practically anywhere- on power poles, outside bedrooms, in public parks, on bus stops, etc. without due notice to residents or adequate compensation for local governments. Whether or not- or how often- one uses wireless devices, people will be exposed to high frequency microwave radiation in close proximity, and involuntarily. This will drive some people out of their homes, tear apart communities, and push endangered species over the brink.

In her recent article, “A 5G Wireless Future: Will it give us a Smart Nation or Contribute to an Unhealthy One?” Dr. Cindy Russell, Vice President of Community Health at the Santa Clara County Medical Association, cites scientific studies that show serious health damage from exposure to the same frequency range that 5G cell sites plan to use. Impacts on human health include genetic, heart, skin, and immune disorders.

Dr. Russell’s full article is available for download: https://stopsmartmeters.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/A-5G-Wireless-Future-SCCMA-Final-revised-51017ZZ-PDF.pdf

Vote no on SB649. This is a fast-track bill bought and paid for by the wireless industry, lacking public support, and potentially ruinous to the health and environment of our beautiful state. Do the research yourself and make a wise decision for our future. Don’t take our word for it. We’re just an organization that has been bearing witness to the health damage caused by the similarly ill-conceived project by the state’s utilities to forcibly deploy smart meters. The damage is occurring— believe us—and it is not pretty.

I must also ask this committee to inquire why the California Dept. of Public Health- an agency paid for by our taxpayer dollars- continues to refuse to publish a cell phone radiation warning flyer that was developed and then buried by the agency. The warning was only made public because of a lawsuit by Joel Moskowitz, Director of the UC Berkeley Center for Family and Community Health. In 2012, our organization sent nearly 1000 written health complaints reporting personal damage suffered from smart meter radiation, from residents all over this state. The CDPH received so many complaints directly that they had to establish a unique email address for the purpose: (the now defunct) smartmeter@cdph.ca.gov. It’s time to publish wireless warnings that our state agency workers have developed for a reason, and let people have the information they need to keep their families safe. An independent inquiry must be launched into the politicization of health policy by this Governor’s office working behind closed doors with the wireless mega-industry to suppress any whiff of warning that would affect cell phone sales, while people die of brain tumors. This is criminally negligent not to mention disgusting on a human level.

No matter the outcome of SB649, this issue will undoubtedly be fought in the courts, at the ballot box, and in the streets. When people wake up with pulsing high frequency 5G antennas outside their bedroom windows, and their homes become inundated with toxic RF radiation that devalues their homes and makes them sick, they will not be happy. And they will ask who voted for the legislation that forced this unwanted, hazardous equipment into their neighborhoods.

Thank you for your time and attention to this pressing and urgent matter.

Josh Hart
Director, Stop Smart Meters!

http://StopSmartMeters.org
Sent from my safer, wired computer

Send your own email opposing SB 649 To: Angela.mapp@asm.ca.gov
Cc: dixie.petty@asm.ca.gov, nidia.bautista@sen.ca.gov, lilia.stone@asm.ca.gov, lily.movsisgan@asm.ca.gov, cody.storm@asm.ca.gov, nardos.girma@asm.ca.gov, jovan.agee@asm.ca.gov, laurel.brodzinsky@asm.ca.gov, steven.stenzler@asm.ca.gov, enedina.garcia@asm.ca.gov, Lily.Movsisyan@asm.ca.gov

More info and background: http://scientists4wiredtech.com/ca-legislators/

Physicians in the heart of Silicon Valley and elsewhere are speaking up about the need to defend our landline systems. Cindy Russell, VP of Community Health for the Santa Clara County Medical Association (SCCMA), wrote an article in the May/ June issue of the SCCMA Bulletin about the public health consequences of destroying our landlines.

See page 26 of the May/ June SCCMA newsletter for Dr. Russell’s fantastic article about why landline telephones matter to public health.

 

 

Protest AT&T’s Threats to Destroy our Safe and Reliable Landline Telephone Service

11:30am Monday May 23rd

425 Market St. (at Fremont St.) 

AT&T Wireless Store

Bring your friends, signs, and landline telephone handsets for a group shot.

AT&T and other big telecom corporations are pushing through legislation to deregulate and discontinue analog copper landline telephone service, which we depend on as the only safe and reliable means to call for help during power outages and emergencies, to access services, conduct business, and to reach our loved ones safely and reliably.

Telecom companies are now bullying and deceiving customers into accepting more expensive, lower quality, unreliable digital phone connections that leave them vulnerable to hacking, scams, overcharges and serious health problems.

Join us to demand AT&T stop its attacks on our copper lifeline, and properly maintain and guarantee us all continued access to our landline infrastructure.

For more information or media contact, please e-mail info@savelandlines.org.

Timepoints for the above video of the Utilities Committee Hearing on April 13th

CALIFORNIA STATE ASSEMBLY
Committee on Utilities and Commerce
April 13, 2016
Assembly Bill 2395

Deregulation and Discontinuation of Analog Landline Service

INTRODUCTION:
Evan Low, Bill Author: 00:16

SUPPORTERS:
Witnesses:
Ken McNeely, President, AT&T California: 05:07
Gary Passmore, Vice President North, Congress of California Seniors: 10:43
Dave Roberts, Fire Chief, El Dorado Hills Fire Department: 14:25
Public comment: 17:22

OPPONENTS:
Witnesses:
Tom Runnion, Vice President, Comm. Workers of America (CWA), District 9: 24:24
Kevin Mottus, California Brain Tumor Association, Los Angeles: 32:01
Josh Hart, Director, StopSmartMeters.org: 37:35
Mark Toney, Executive Director, The Utility Reform Network (TURN): 44:44
Public comment: 48:48

REGULATOR – OPPOSING:
Hazel Miranda, Director, Office of Governmental Affairs, California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC): 1:07:33

COMMITTEE DISCUSSION AND Q & A:
Bill Quirk:  1:09:07
Ken McNeely

David Hadley: 1:16:42
Ken McNeely

Jay Obernolte: 1:23:35
Ken McNeely

Rocky J. Chavez: 1:25:11
Ken McNeely

Philip Y. Ting: 1:29:34
Ken McNeely
Evan Low

Eduardo Garcia: 1:32:10
Brian Dahle: 1:33:55
Susan Talamantes Eggman: 1:34:40
Ken McNeely
Tom Runnion: 1:40:12
Roger Hernandez: 1:41:53
Jim Patterson: 1:46:03
Mike Gatto: 1:47:42

AUTHOR CLOSING:
Evan Low: 1:50:47
VOTE: 1:53:36