AT&T Delays Calif. Customer Migration Amid Concerns

Facing consumer advocate concerns in California, AT&T said Wednesday it will delay migrating residential landline customers to Frontier Communications in areas of the state where AT&T currently resells Frontier's ILEC service. The carrier originally set Friday as the date for moving to Frontier any customers who didn’t make an alternative selection. AT&T is seeking to discontinue residential service in Frontier territory and relinquish its eligible telecom commission designation this fall (see 2108030041). “As Communications Division Staff has directed, AT&T Corp. will begin migrating customers 30 days after” the carrier mails a third customer notice, which awaits staff approval, the carrier told the California Public Utilities Commission in a Wednesday filing (docket A.21-05-007). The letter will be co-branded with Frontier and include information on LifeLine renewals, it said. The original Friday termination date became “increasingly more concerning with wildfires and Red Flag warning in certain parts of the state,” said The Utility Reform Network (TURN), Center for Accessible Technology and the CPUC’s Public Advocates Office in a separate statement in the same filing. They raised concerns about possible impacts to California LifeLine users, people with disabilities and medical alert customers. AT&T assured the commission the transition “will be a seamless process that will ensure residential service customers do not lose essential local voice service.” Since AT&T service is "provided under a UNE-P [Unbundled Network Element-Platform] arrangement by Frontier, customers ... will be served with the same network they are on today,” it said. "Frontier will not need to dispatch personnel or equipment, and residential service customers will not be charged disconnection or activation fees due to the migration.” Frontier already handles trouble and repair tickets, AT&T added. The new transition time frame isn’t certain because the CPUC “is looking at this closely and continues its review of the transfer,” including concerns raised by consumer groups, emailed TURN telecommunications staff attorney Ashley Salas. AT&T "continue[s] to work with all applicable regulatory bodies to determine the effective date to no longer resell home phone service in California," a spokesperson emailed Thursday. "Once approved, a very small number of our customers’ services will be transferred to Frontier."