MIDDLETOWN, Calif. — At a California Public Utilities Commission workshop, Lake County leaders, alongside regional officials, discussed concerns over communication in rural California and called for continuous landline services to the region.

The California Public Utilities Commission, or CPUC, held panel discussions at Twin Pine Hotel and Casino on April 4 with tribal, public safety and rural county leadership as part of a rulemaking proceeding on carrier of last resort.

The workshop was the first in a series of public participation events focused on potential changes to the rulemaking proceeding, which could affect landline services across the state.

Speakers throughout the day emphasized the essential role of reliable landline service in rural California, where cell towers are sparse, weather conditions are challenging, more residents rely on copper lines and public safety depends on having redundant communication systems — especially during emergencies like wildfires, floods and power outages.

Lake County District 5 Supervisor Jessica Pyska, Sheriff Luke Bingham and Middletown Rancheria of Pomo Indians Chairman Moke Simon joined state officials and leaders of other tribes and counties — including Mendocino, Inyo, Nevada and San Mateo — in the discussion.

A carrier of last resort, often referred to as COLR, is a telecommunications provider obligated to offer basic phone service — typically landline service — to any customer within a designated area.

AT&T is the designated COLR in much of California, including Lake County, and is the largest one in the state.

In 2023, AT&T California filed an application requesting relief from its obligations. The CPUC rejected the application in June 2024.

During the review process, the Lake County Board of Supervisors submitted a letter to CPUC, opposing AT&T’s request, warning of “considerable dangers” to residents who rely solely on landlines and lack alternative communication options.

Also in June 2024, the CPUC opened a new proceeding to consider making changes to the current COLR rules.

Current rules state that a COLR cannot end its service obligations unless another provider assumes the responsibility. Changes to such rules could affect the conditions of COLR withdrawal.

“A company that is no longer designated as COLR could stop providing basic service,” CPUC says in a fact sheet regarding the rulemaking.

Communication ‘redundancy’ is key for public safety and personal emergencies

Public safety panelists emphasized the importance of communication “redundancy” during emergencies, stressing the need for multiple methods in rugged rural areas where cell coverages are sparse and unreliable.

They noted that copper infrastructure and landline services remain critical, even alongside modern wireless systems.

“We're a very rural community, we're a very rugged community in different areas, and that causes a lot of communication problems within our communities, even within our own dispatch system,” said Lake County Sheriff Bingham, adding that there were times when radio or cell phone systems broke down.

“So our goal within the OES [Office of Emergency Services] branch of the sheriff's office in the county is to always have those redundant systems of notification and communication within the county,” Bingham said.

Speakers made references to wildfire disasters when communication was challenging and dependable landlines were key.

“During the 2017 wildfires, we had our copper lines,” said Mendocino County Sheriff Matthew Kendall. “The poles had been burned and they were laying on the ground, but I was still able to make it to a fire department, pick up a landline, dial it and connect with Cal Fire.”

He added, “These layers — this redundancy that we have in place — is very, very important for first responders from the beginning to the end of an event.”

Kendall then pointed to two things that have “historically worked” in Mendocino that he still thought are important today: local radio and copper lines, which he personally still keeps at home.

"If we remove one of those layers, the devil's in the details on some of these things," Kendall said, adding that these systems are essential not only during wildfires, but also in everyday emergencies — like when someone falls off a ladder or during a public safety power shutoff.

“Without the ability to make a phone call, contact 911, contact EMS [emergency medical services] or fire or the sheriff's office,” he said, “people are going to suffer, and so that's a huge concern for me, if we start taking things off the plate that have historically worked for us.”

Having multiple communication methods available is also important for first responders to locate callers.

“Worst case — the fiber connection burns up and there's no redundant path for the VoIP customer to be able to call, you're not going to know where they're at,” said Paul Troxel, 911 Branch Manager of the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, or Cal OES.

“The cell coverage here is very spotty,” said Supervisor Pyska later in the rural county officials panel.

She referenced medically fragile constituents who only have a landline, residents who do not have access to cell service despite living in a populated community, and those who live in an area that suffers from regular floods.

“These are the people that I’m really, really concerned about,” she said. “This is not an unusual story.”

Potential for a ‘drastic negative impact on public safety’

Each year, more than 26 million 911 calls are received statewide, according to Troxel. Of those, 87% come from a wireless device, about 4% come from a “plain old telephone POTS line” and about 6% from a VoIP line, he said.

Sheriff Bingham later added that in Lake County, his dispatch center receives 35,000 to 38,000 calls of 911 every year.

If landline communication is taken away from the residents, “that’s still a large amount of 911 calls that we would not be able to receive and respond to,” Bingham said of the 1,400 to 1,520 calls based on the 4% estimate.

While Troxel clarified that the percentage was an aggregated state data and he did not have the data specific to rural areas, it could be a much bigger number, said Andrew White, chief of Martinez Police, who left the city of Clearlake as the police chief in 2022.

“I would suspect the percentages are a lot higher as you go to the rural areas,” said White, reiterating the importance of providing “redundancy” in the area.

“It’s pretty few and far between that you can get access to fiber infrastructure,” White said.

Toward the end of the panel discussion, the CPUC asked how it could minimize impacts to public safety if the commission does determine that “some areas may not require a designated COLR obligation.”

“I think that is the million dollar question — if these services go away, what will be there?” Kendall said.

“I think especially in Lake County, just knowing the geography of Lake County, I think the investment in the infrastructure to cover the areas that are currently covered by copper lines would far exceed what the current cost is for those copper lines,” Bingham said.

“I think you could see a drastic negative impact on public safety, if just suddenly tomorrow it’s decided that this isn’t there,” White said of the potential changes in the rulemaking. “I think it needs to be done over time.”

Kendall mentioned that various telecommunication companies have coverage maps for cell service that do not accurately reflect their actual coverage.

“Although they look good when I look at them, a lot of them make me laugh — because they will have full coverage in places where I've been standing just two days prior, unable to make any phone calls,” Kendall said.

“It’s got to be boots on the ground and actually go test it — go test it,” he said.

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Written by: LINGZI CHEN

Published: 02 May 2025