Even in the heart of L.A., they still rely on old-fashioned landlines and don't want to lose them

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Set us as preferred Living high up in the Hollywood Hills, Peter and Nanci Ellis think of their landline as a lifeline.Most days, cellphone service in their Los Feliz Oaks home near Griffith Park is so spotty that they rely on their traditional phone for medical consultations, job interviews or any call with long wait times.But the landline is also essential in their neighborhood — which has few roads in and out and is at high risk of fires and earthquake landslides — because it connects to their alarm system and monitors their smoke detectors.“We need to be sure we can be reached by emergency services, and to be able to reach out” in the event of a disaster, the Ellises wrote last month in a public comment to the Federal Communications Commission.The deadly firestorms that erupted in Los Angeles in 2025, they noted, proved “minutes made the difference between life and death.”Old copper landlines are going the way of so many other aging pieces of technology as smartphones have become the way many people surf the web, pay bills, watch movies and keep up with friends and family.

But some residents of L.A.and California — particularly those who live in fire-prone areas — are determined to hold on to their traditional phones.

As telecommunications giant AT&T accelerates its push to retire landline service to about 184,000 households and 15,000 businesses across the state, hundreds of Californians have voiced alarm in public comments.Many who rely on copper-wire landlines live in remote rural areas, but some also live in the hills and canyons of major metro areas like Los Angeles, where cell and internet service is patchy and the risk of natural disasters is high.“It’s unnerving, for sure,” said Sarah Adams, 81, a retired high school math teacher who lives alone in a Rancho Palos Verdes neighborhood with...