California lawmakers are considering a bill to cut the cord on landline telephone service at a hearing today before the Assembly Utilities and Commerce Committee.

Assembly Bill 2395 would permit AT&T to stop maintaining the copper-wire landline service in California in 2020, except in areas that have no alternative to cell phone or Voice Over Internet Protocol service.

Josh Hart, a consumer advocate who founded a group to fight smart meters in homes, said landlines are a crucial part of the state's infrastructure and are less vulnerable than cell phones.

"They depend on the electric grid, and when that goes down there's no cell service," he said. "So there needs to be robust, reliable high-quality landline service available as a choice for Californians."

AT&T said its cell and VOIP services are more advanced and cost less than landlines, and has estimated that only 15 percent of households in the state maintain a landline. Advocates say that still amounts to about 10 million Californians.

Blanca Castro, manager for advocacy at AARP California, said her organization opposes the replacement of publicly switched telephone networks because many people, especially seniors, can't use cell phones or aren't comfortable with the technology.

"People's landlines are their lifeline," she said, "because of disability, not being able to read the numbers on a cell phone and needing to have big keyboards on landlines."

Last summer, the Federal Communications Commission passed a rule allowing phone companies to phase out landlines but required them to give homeowners and businesses three months' and six months' notice, respectively.

The text of AB 2395 is online at leginfo.legislature.ca.gov.


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ROSLINDALE, Mass. - A new report finds Massachusetts residents would rather repair electronic devices than send them to landfills, but manufacturers often create barriers to making those repairs.

The report says seven of the 10 most popular manufacturers of phones, laptops, appliances and more restrict access to parts and service information - limiting consumers and even repair professionals, from accessing tools, parts, schematics or software.

Janet Domenitz, executive director of the Massachusetts Public Interest Group, said legislation has been pending in the General Assembly for years to ensure the digital "right to repair."

"You know, when you purchase something, the idea is you own it," said Domenitz. "But if you can't fix it, you don't own it, and that's part of our case for passing this law. If you buy a device, you should get the instructions for how it's made, and how you fix it."

The report says in 2020, more than two million Massachusetts users went online to 'iFixit.com' to learn how to repair something. Domenitz noted it's estimated that Commonwealth residents could have saved $870 million last year by repairing devices instead of buying new ones.

Alex Castillo owns Digitech Electronic Solutions, an electronics repair company based in Roslindale. He said bringing devices back to the manufacturer for repair can be time-consuming and expensive, especially for people who may not have transportation or time to take off work.

"Here, luckily, it could be done in fairly quicker time," said Castillo. "And also the amount of money will be a huge discount, compared to going to one of those big manufacturers."

Domenitz added electronic waste is one of the most prevalent and toxic sources of waste. She said it takes 165 pounds of raw material to produce one eight inch cellphone.

And Americans discard more than 415,000 cellphones per day, roughly 8,100 in Massachusetts.

"Disposing of stuff, putting things in landfills and incinerators," said Domenitz. "I mean, that is polluting our air, water, taking up open space."

DENVER -- The days of exponentially high increases in health-insurance costs may finally be in the rearview mirror. The Colorado Division of Insurance's preliminary plans for 2022 project only slight premium increases.

Gov. Jared Polis credited the state's reinsurance program for helping save consumers money.

Adam Fox, deputy director of the Colorado Consumer Initiative, said the program, which allows insurance companies to defray the costs of the most expensive claims, has helped keep rates stable in the individual market.

"On average, Coloradans are going to see around a 1.4% increase in plan premiums, which is a far cry from some of the double-digit premium increases that we saw several years ago," Fox explained.

Savings from the reinsurance program increased this year. Grand Junction and other parts of the Western Slope, and communities on the Eastern Plains, saw health-insurance premiums drop by more than 35% on average. Rates in Front Range cities dropped between 20% and 30%.

Critics of legislation establishing the program worried the cost of fees collected to finance reinsurance would just be passed along to consumers.

Fox noted so far, there has been little evidence consumers are being negatively impacted by how the program is funded. Even if fees collected from insurance companies were being passed along to consumers, Fox added the program's benefits are far greater.

"On average, Coloradans are saving 24% on their premiums because of the reinsurance program, and the fee is 2% of premiums being collected," Fox outlined.

The reinsurance program is one of a host of policy tweaks state lawmakers have crafted under the Affordable Care Act in an effort to keep costs down and increase coverage.

Polis promised even greater savings when the Colorado Option comes online. The measure requires insurers, health-care providers and hospitals to reduce premiums by an additional 15% by 2023.

RALEIGH, N.C. -- As more North Carolinians resume travel and take vacations this summer, most will be relying on their debit and credit cards, and smartphones, and experts say fraudulent activity from financial data aggregation services such as PayPal and Venmo are a growing concern.

Joe Mecca, vice president for communication at Coastal Credit Union, said criminals can steal login credentials from less secure websites, and then attempt to use them to hack into other accounts or obtain bank information.

"Fraudsters are getting more and more sophisticated in how they target people," Mecca outlined. "They're getting a combination of publicly available information, as well as information that may have been stolen from different data breaches, and they start to cobble that all together to create profiles. "

Mecca advised never using the same password on multiple websites, and emphasized a strong, unique password is your first line of defense.

According to a report from Safety.com, North Carolina ranks fifteenth in the nation for the frequency of cybercrime, with losses estimated at more than $48 million.

Mecca added sharing seemingly harmless information on Facebook such as your first car, favorite pet or second-grade teacher's name may reveal common security question answers.

"What they don't realize is your friends who went to school with you that you're connected with on Facebook that a fraudster can see, might be using that information, or your family members might be using that information," Mecca explained.

Jonathon Striley, vice president for information security at Coastal Credit Union, recommended just like getting your vehicle's oil changed every few months, take the time to regularly update your computer, change your passwords and delete old accounts.

"Security is going to continue to be a major threat, unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on how you look at it," Striley asserted. "Now everything that we do is entirely dependent on computers. Therefore, our security and our well-being is dependent on keeping them safe."

Losses from identity-theft cases increased 42% to more than $700 billion last year, according to the Insurance Information Institute. Experts say the spike was fueled by the high rate of unemployment identity theft during the pandemic, as increased and extended unemployment benefits became a magnet for fraudsters.