Bell System Retirees Denounce AT&T’s Move to Eliminate Landline Phone Services Across Country
Advocates Say Telecom Firm is ‘Disregarding Everyday Americans Who Treat Landlines as Lifelines’
COLD SPRING HARBOR, NY — December 11, 2024 — Following AT&T’s announcement that it would end its landline phone services in every state except California by 2029, leaders of the non-profit Association of BellTel Retirees, Inc. denounced a move that they say will harm public safety by putting communities, homes and businesses at a severe disadvantage.
AT&T announced that it intends to phase out its copper wire infrastructure that supports phone lines for most landline users. AT&T officials have called the company’s copper wire phone lines “antiquated” and claim that they require costly service that is not as effective as wireless broadband networks.
AT&T currently operates a landline franchise in 21 states and plans to eliminate the service in every state except California, where utility commissioners in June 2024 unanimously rejected AT&T’s application to stop providing landlines in areas where there is no other option.
From the perspective of the BellTel Retirees, AT&T is ignoring the fact that many Americans still rely on landlines as critical lifelines. They remain especially important during emergencies, or blackouts, when spotty and unreliable wireless services can’t always be counted on to do the job.
“AT&T’s intention to eliminate landline phone service across the country shows reckless disregard for so many Americans who rely on landlines as a critical lifeline in their everyday lives,” said Thomas Steed, Chairman of the Association of BellTel Retirees. “Leaving vulnerable residents to rely on finicky and unreliable internet-based phone services that are prone to outages would be malpractice for a company supposedly committed to equitable communications services for all its customers. The Association of BellTel Retirees stands firmly against this greed-driven decision and will continue working to ensure affordable, reliable access to phone services for everyone.”
Removing this service to the public, according to the BellTel Retirees, is a cloaked attempt for the company to walk away from and eliminate the jobs of countless thousands of union technicians who maintain the system and its critical infrastructure.
Steed, who spent over three decades working for Ma Bell as a Lineman and Technical Associate, added: “The build-out and maintenance of a connected communications system from coast to coast was and remains a national security imperative, for our government, for commerce and our citizens. Copper-wire landlines remain a durable, 100-percent reliable solution, especially during emergency situations.”
BellTel leaders point out that it is the ratepayers of the landline system who funded the research, development and build-out of the satellites, cell towers and network that AT&T now recognizes as its cash cow. AT&T, they say, should not abandon the people, communities and ratepayers who funded and enabled AT&T to have such a massive business franchise with revenues that exceeded $128 billion in 2023.
Crucially, mobile carriers must obtain permission from the Federal Communications Commission before discontinuing landline services for both new and existing customers.
“Our Association will insist that the FCC deny permission for AT&T to abandon its duty to provide a vital public service long relied upon by so many,” said Don Kaufmann, Secretary of the Association of BellTel Retirees. “We must protect the millions of American families and especially seniors who rely on landlines to be their connection to the outside world, particularly in cases of emergency.”
The Association of BellTel Retirees is a 134,000-member non-profit advocacy group that works for the protection of retirees’ pensions and benefits of the former Bell System and its current and former affiliates.
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