SACRAMENTO >> Recalling telecommunications outages that silenced large parts of the North Coast last fall, Senator Mike McGuire and Assemblymember Jim Wood are spearheading efforts to engage AT&T in the critical need for redundant telecommunication services in rural California.
Chairs of the County Boards of Supervisors in Lake, Sonoma, Mendocino and Humboldt counties joined the legislators in this effort. The group have officially requested complete telecommunications redundancy, not just “resiliency,” from AT&T in the North Coast.
“Public health and safety is at risk when a simple fiber cut can lead to rural residents being cut off from 911 access for several hours, and when patients are challenged to access their electronic medical records for prescriptions,” McGuire said. “Reliable internet and phone service is no longer a luxury, it’s a necessity, and our rural residents deserve better.”
In a letter sent this week to William H. Devine, Vice President of Legislative Affairs for AT&T, elected officials expressed concern for AT&T’s alleged lack of accountability to residents of Northern California and questioned their commitment to engage with rural communities. It was reportedly McGuire and not AT&T who informed California’s Office of Emergency Services of an outage that cut critical public safety services.
The group also called for the treatment of telecommunications as a “core utility.”
The demand stems from a series of four fiber outages in 2015, including a significant outage in September that wiped out much of the North Coast telecommunication and network systems. In both September and December, several 911 networks went down. The outage forced Mendocino County emergency response teams to position ambulances at intersections and relay information via ham radio. During the September event, the U.S. Coast Guard had to fly a continuous air patrol to maintain coverage. In Humboldt County, court records were unavailable and the jail phone system fell silent, placing personnel at risk.
The outages effected Lake County residents, though proved less damaging to public safety at large. Still, the matter proved cause for concern.
“Lake County residents deserve to have reliable internet and phone service,” said Rob Brown, Chair of the Lake County Board of Supervisors. “These devastating fiber disruptions are simply unacceptable in the 21st century and a redundant system should have been deployed years ago, before these crises hit the North Coast.”
In addition to the public health and safety threat, large scale fiber outages cost local communities potentially millions of dollars when businesses and financial institutions can’t complete transactions due to lost connectivity of debit and credit card machines. The Federal Communications Commission also recently stated that internet service has “steadily shifted from an optional amenity to a core utility.”
In December, AT&T representatives sent a letter to Northern California elected officials stating the company is committed to upgrading the North Coast’s network to increase protection against service disruptions caused by fiber outages. The Legislators and Supervisors responded with the letter this week, asking for more than just a commitment.
“We respectfully request complete telecommunications redundancy for all of AT&T’s North Coast customers. Additionally, we request a detailed outline regarding AT&T’s resiliency proposal and responses as to what steps are being taken to address the concerns,” the letter stated.
The letter was signed by State Senator Mike McGuire, Assemblymember Jim Wood, Sonoma County Board of Supervisors Chair Efren Carrillo, Mendocino County Board of Supervisors Chair Dan Gjerde, Lake County Board of Supervisors Chair Rob Brown, and Humboldt County Board of Supervisors Chair Mark Lovelace.
