AT&T, San Mateo Co. officials meet over future of landlines in California: Here's what happened
"We're not allowed to just turn off a customer and walk away," AT&T said.
REDWOOD CITY, Calif. (KGO) -- The San Mateo County Board of Supervisors heard from AT&T officials on Tuesday about ending landline service to thousands of customers.
Supervisors argue this is life-saving technology in times of emergency that the county can't afford to lose.
Those living in rural areas of San Mateo County are no stranger to power outages.
"Frequent power outages means that we have use of our landline only," Ann, a Moss Beach resident said during public comment.
A lifeline that could be going away if the California Public Utilities Commission approves AT&T's proposals to relieve them of the obligation to maintain landline service.
On Monday, ABC7 introduced you to the Vail family of Woodside.
They also rely on their landline during power outages.
"So last year we had an eight day outage, there are seven days we would not have any kind of communication for police, fire or ambulance," Bree-Anna Vail, a Woodside resident said.
Concerns, that were amplified at the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday.
"We do have a landline and if it wasn't for that, I would not feel safe on the coast at all," Ann said.
"I see it as a threat to the public health, and public health and safety who for residents in our rural areas and our semi-rural areas," Ray Mueller, a San Mateo County Supervisor said.
RELATED: Bay Area residents outraged over possibly losing landlines: Here's more on effort to save them
AT&T gave a presentation to quell concerns during Tuesday's Board of Supervisors meeting.
"We're not allowed to just turn off a customer and walk away," Tedi Vriheas, Vice President of External Affairs for AT&T California said.
Explaining that 27 years ago, 15 million Californians depended on landlines.
Now, that number is closer to 500,000.
"The application seeks to be able to have that relief, if we are able to prove that there was an alternative that is as good, equal to, or better than the landline that someone has on their phone today," Vriheas said.
Vriheas says, the goal is to transition to more advanced, new services.
"A landline, while it feels great and secure, it's actually not, I mean you can't leave your house when your house is burning down with it," she said. "It's not perfect."
MORE: AT&T nationwide outage caused by software update, not malicious intent: Sources
Meanwhile, county supervisors directed council to bring a resolution forward to formally oppose AT&T's application with the CPUC to make sure rural residents don't get left behind.
"We absolutely know there will be and we're fighting for them every day on this," Mueller said.
The CPUC will be holding a virtual public hearing on this issue on March 19.
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