1. United States
2. Ore.
3. Letter

I'm a constituent in Northeast Portland, near NE 9th Avenue and Ainsworth Street, and I'm writing about a problem that I expect many of your constituents are now facing: AT&T's takeover of CenturyLink's residential fiber lines has left existing customers with no one responsible for maintaining their service. In February, I received a single brief email saying our fiber lines had been purchased by AT&T. It was informational only. Nothing said any action was needed or that our service or support would change. On the night of October 14, our internet went down. The next morning I called CenturyLink, which confirmed a physical problem with the equipment at our location requiring a technician. CenturyLink then told me it could no longer service our address because AT&T now owns the lines, and that I had to contact AT&T. After roughly two hours on the phone between the two companies, AT&T had no record of my account or service. I had to open a brand-new account and choose a new service plan, and the earliest installation date is October 20. That is a six-day outage for a household that was a paying customer the whole time. In effect, AT&T owns the lines but would not repair them for an existing customer, and CenturyLink still has the customer relationship but says it cannot maintain the lines. Neither company would fix the problem without the customer starting over with a new company. Internet access is now a core utility for work, school, healthcare, and emergency communication, and customers should not lose it because of a gap in a corporate handoff. When this sale was announced, Lumen (CenturyLink's parent company) said it would support customers' transition to AT&T for two years after closing. My experience suggests that commitment is not working as intended. I'm asking you to: 1. Look into how AT&T and Lumen/CenturyLink are handling repairs and account transfers for Oregon customers affected by this sale. 2. Push for a clear rule that the company that owns the lines must maintain service for existing customers, with no forced new sign-up or reinstallation wait to restore a working connection. 3. Press for outage credits or other compensation for customers left without service because of this transition. 4. Ask both companies to notify affected customers directly and clearly about who to call for repairs. I understand that internet providers are large companies and that your direct authority may be limited, but elected officials are often the only ones able to get their attention. I would appreciate knowing what steps your office can take, and I'm glad to share more details.