NEWS

Kasich proposal could eliminate landlines

Jessie Balmert

COLUMBUS – Margaret Redding, 97, who lives in rural Vinton County, can’t contact the emergency services she needs without a landline.

But Gov. John Kasich and Ohio lawmakers want to make it easier for companies to eliminate landlines used by as many as 700,000 Ohioans, like Redding, who don’t have access to a cellphone or a broadband network.

“I need the landline for emergency situations when my daughter and her husband are at work. I also need the landline to contact my doctors for appointments and for them to contact me, and for me to contact family and friends,” Redding wrote in a letter to Ohio lawmakers protesting the change.

About 17.5 percent of Ohioans rely mostly on a landline for their phone calls, and 6.3 percent of residents use them exclusively, according to the most recent estimates from a National Health Statistics report.

The proposal would allow phone companies to ax landlines if businesses give customers at least 120 days notice. Kasich proposed the change in the two-year, $71 billion state budget after threatening to veto a similar idea last fall.

Lawmakers are negotiating differences in the budget this week with a deadline of June 30.

Telecommunication companies argue that ditching old technology will free up money to invest in Internet services for more Ohioans. The Ohio Telecom Association, a trade association for 41 telecommunication businesses, supports the proposal, saying it will allow more investment in new technologies.

But advocates say eliminating landlines could disconnect low income families and older adults from emergency services, physicians and attorneys they need.

“Some customers could be hurt,” said Mike Smalz, a senior attorney with the Ohio Poverty Law Center. “They would either end up with no phone service or unaffordable service or service that doesn’t meet their needs.”

Access is a problem in rural, Appalachian counties, where 63 percent of households subscribed to home broadband services, compared with 72 percent of households statewide, according to the most recent survey from Connect Ohio, a nonprofit organization focused on improving access to Internet and technology.

Individuals could protest the elimination of their landlines with the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, saying they couldn’t find a reasonable and comparatively priced alternative in the area. If PUCO agrees, they would receive a one-year reprieve, which could be extended.

That would be a swap from current law that requires phone companies to persuade the PUCO that eliminating landlines would be in the best interest of the public; no business has tried that route.

Any change would have to wait for the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, which is deciding whether Internet service is an acceptable alternative for phone lines.

AARP Ohio asked state lawmakers to wait until after the FCC makes its ruling on landlines before making it easier to eliminate them.

“We hope that the needs of those with medical conditions, those who are aging in place, and those in rural areas truly have access to affordable reliable substitutes,” AARP spokeswoman Kathy Keller said.