Letters to the Editor: In removing landlines, AT&T could be putting Angelenos in danger
-
Click here to listen to this article - Share via
See more from the L.A. Times in Google Search. Set us as preferred
To the editor: I’ve had three power outages over four years, and the only way I could report them was via my landline (“Even in the heart of L.A., they still rely on old-fashioned landlines and don’t want to lose them,” July 10). During a high-wind storm in December, the Department of Water and Power didn’t even know our whole street in Los Feliz was out of power. Because of the winds, I couldn’t have a fire in my fireplace and couldn’t access my heating system nor open my garage door. It was 53 degrees in my house and I’m 87. It took three days for the DWP to arrive.
When I received the letter from AT&T that landlines would be stopped, I phoned the company and a man explained that I would be given a new phone for $1, and that it would have 24-hour battery life. I could buy a second battery for $90, which would also be good for 24 hours, but I could not buy any beyond that.
I have macular degeneration and can use the push buttons on my old phone without light. No real emergency — earthquake, fire, etc. — will be solved in 24 or 48 hours. For that matter, how would we reach AT&T to tell them the phone no longer works?
Until AT&T can come up with a phone that has a battery usable for at least a week, at no cost, it is not serving the public.
Meg Quinn Coulter, Los Angeles
..
To the editor: We started losing AT&T landline service last summer after more than 41 years of service. It was briefly restored in October, but went out again late November and has not been restored.
AT&T has never reached out to us, so after multiple calls to its service center, we started getting a credit on our monthly bill. As we have no cellular coverage in our Woodland Hills home (neither Verizon nor T-Mobile work inside), we now exclusively use Wi-Fi to make and receive calls. I’ve been looking at expensive conversion to Wi-Fi for our home security system, including smoke detectors, communications panels, etc. Needless to say, I’m worried it won’t be reliable in an emergency.
Janice Lee, Woodland Hills
