Key Points: A high-stakes regulatory and legal battle is escalating in the western United States over the future of traditional telephone services. The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) recently took formal action, urging both a federal court and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to reject a series of requests from telecom giant AT&T. The corporate utility is actively seeking to shed its decades-old legal obligations as California’s “Carrier of Last Resort” (COLR), a designation that currently forces it to offer