Illinois Legislators Beat Veto, Enact AT&T Deregulation With 911 Reauthorization
Illinois General Assembly Democrats overrode a veto by Gov. Bruce Rauner (R) and passed a bill combining AT&T deregulation with reauthorization of 911 services that were to expire Saturday. Friday, Rauner had asked the legislature to delete tax increases and a section related to telecom deregulation in SB-1839. But Saturday, the Illinois House voted 90-22 and the Senate voted 43-1 to override Rauner’s veto and pass the measure as HB-1811. A state consumer group vowed to fight at the FCC to stop AT&T from killing landlines, but AT&T denied it soon will end home service.
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Rauner said Democrats unfairly threatened 911 services as leverage for supporting tax increases. In the veto letter he wrote, “9-1-1 dispatch centers are the backbone of our public safety system.” But Democratic legislators “waited until the last moment” to send the 911 reauthorization to his desk, Rauner said. “Unfortunately, those lawmakers also inserted a major tax hike into this bill, a tax that's both excessive and unwarranted, and that I strongly oppose.”
The Citizens Utility Board said it's disappointed lawmakers overrode the veto. The new law allows AT&T to cease offering telecom services to specific groups of customers, subject to certain requirements. CUB said the bill allows AT&T to end traditional landline service in Illinois. “Not only does this legislation hurt people who depend on a landline as their most reliable link to vital services, but it also does nothing to require AT&T to improve its network,” CUB said in a statement. The consumer group said it will keep fighting AT&T at the FCC, which would have to agree to the carrier ending landline service in Illinois or other states. That approval process could take months, CUB said.
“Traditional landline phone service from AT&T is not going away anytime soon,” replied AT&T Illinois President Paul La Schiazza in a statement. Illinois is the 20th state with such a law and the carrier “still sells and provides traditional landline service to customers in all of those states,” he said. “The new Illinois law helps plan for the eventual transition to only the technologies that customers overwhelmingly prefer today,” VoIP and wireless service, he said. The transition “could take a number of years,” the AT&T state president said.
The Illinois law follows many states' reducing regulation of AT&T and other big phone companies (see 1703100041). In April, Minnesota Public Utilities Commissioners agreed to treat CenturyLink as a CLEC in most exchanges (see 1704200041). Last month, Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin (R) signed legislation stripping the Public Service Commission of authority over retail phone service in all AT&T exchanges. Also, several states this year allowed AT&T to exit state Lifeline programs (see 1705190019).
Illinois lawmakers postponed action on other telecom bills on privacy and wireless infrastructure siting. Legislators extended final action deadlines to July 7 for SB-1502, which would require commercial website operators collecting customer information to notify customers upon request by the customer, and SB-1451, which would pre-empt local authority on wireless infrastructure siting. Last week, Rauner raised concerns about a geolocation privacy bill (HB-3449) passed by the legislature (see 1706280014).