Industry Balks at 'Sweeping' California Wireline Backup Power Proposal

local communities,” AT&T said in Friday reply comments in docket R.18-03-011. The California Public Utilities Commission should take a more targeted approach to wireline resiliency than it did for wireless, "one that focuses on the most critical customers and the California residents most in need of a wireline option, given the nearly ubiquitous availability of wireless service,” the carrier said. “The power needs of wireline networks are more widely distributed than wireless networks, and the benefits of backup power in wireline networks are severely limited by the lack of backup power at the customers’ premises.” The California Cable and Telecommunications Association urged support for its plan to provide 72 hours of backup power to wireline facilities in tier 2 and 3 high fire-threat districts (HFTDs). Reject consumer and county groups' “sweeping, infeasible, and counterproductive” proposal to extend the requirement statewide and to residential customers, CCTA urged. Few customers have backup power sources for their home wireline equipment, and "it would take massive, cost-prohibitive reengineering to maintain power throughout their cable networks for 72 hours, create unacceptable risks, and cause unacceptable harms to surrounding areas and communities,” the cable group said. Most Californians use wireless services in emergencies, but the CPUC required wireless providers to provide backup power only in tiers 1 and 2, CCTA added. The CPUC can’t expect no outages during disasters, CalTel and other rural LECs said. “Some level of network impairment is inevitable, especially in networks that serve rugged, remote terrain.” Rules requiring large spending “will either take away from other priorities -- such as deployment of broadband-capable facilities or customer service -- or it will risk creating an unfunded mandate whose costs cannot be reasonably or efficiently recovered through the rate case process,” the RLECs said. The California State Association of Counties reminded the CPUC not to forget “numerous communities within California that do not have sufficient wireless coverage and ... are limited in how they receive emergency messages.” The CPUC’s Public Advocates Office proposed “a phased approach by which wireline service providers are first required to provide backup power in Tier 2 and Tier 3 HFTDs within six months of the adoption of the decision or by May 2021, whichever is sooner.” Providers would have to cover outside areas within a year, the office said. Carriers are challenging the CPUC’s July wireless resiliency rules as wildfires spread across the state (see 2008200038).