SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Using a landline at a home may seem foreign to many. But for many people in rural areas, it’s often the main way of connecting to the outside world.

Fran Du Champ said her landline is especially important, being disabled with limited mobility.

What You Need To Know

  • AT&T has applied with the state for its connection of last resort status to be dropped, meaning it wouldn’t be required to provide landline service, which the company said it wants to stop.

  • Many in rural areas say they rely on their landline service during power outages, to aid with medical emergency assistance as the landline is attached to an address and often are in cell "dead zones" 

  • AT&T said it won't happen overnight

  • The company will still provide a landline service for those with no other options

“With the landline. It connects you to community and, you know, again, that’s important to me,” Du Champ said.

Du Champ lives halfway between Sacramento and South Lake Tahoe at around 4,000 feet. 

Du Champ said due to her knee replacements, she spends most of her time indoors and is able to get by with disability payments.

The area is no stranger to extreme weather, and Du Champ said her landline with AT&T has been her savior from power outages, as her landline doesn’t require it, and when she’s fallen in her home.

She said she has a flip phone but that it isn’t very reliable, especially when you need to charge it and the power is out.

“Where a landmine or, you know, a connection to the world helps is that I wouldn’t have been able to go outside,” Du Champ said. “I would have to rely on getting help inside. And that’s where a landline comes in.”

That connection Du Champ has recently learnt could be going away as AT&T has applied with the state for its connection of last resort status to be dropped, meaning it wouldn’t be required to provide landline service, which the company said it wants to stop.

“I am totally against that,” Du Champ said.

Du Champ says she’s looked to upgrade her DSL internet connection, but on a fixed income, it’s not an option.

AT&T said it will impact people throughout California, providing a map of those affected by the ending of their landline service, and said it affects less than a million customers.

Adding that number equates to only a small percentage of customers still using the service, meaning a smaller pool of money to keep the network operating.

Landline service will remain though if necessary, said Tedi Vriheas, vice president of external affairs for AT&T California.

Related Stories

 

“If there are no alternatives or wireless coverage is not good in that area, and there are no alternatives, AT&T will stay the carrier of last resort,” Vriheas said.

Vriheas also said the company cares about its customers and people won’t be losing service anytime soon.

“Nothing is happening tomorrow,” she said. “We have to get through this multi-year proceeding.”

Du Champ said it’s a little confusing to hear AT&T may still provide service to some who have no other options.

“If you’re going to keep my landline going and 20 miles away, somebody else’s landline, those are all connecting lines. Wouldn’t you just maintain the whole thing?” Du Champ said.

She hopes the state will make the right decision to make sure she and others can still communicate effectively.