Older copper lines were fine for typical telephony, but are inadequate for modern high-speed communications demands — that was the reasoning behind today’s Federal Communications Commission (FCC) actions, which the regulator said are designed to will help ensure that providers roll out upgraded, high-speed networks to more Americans on a faster timeline.
The FCC said it is maintaining consumer protections in place as the transition from copper occurs. Among those protections is requiring interoperability and guarding against price hikes by ensuring that consumers transitioning to new networks get access to services at similar or lower price points.
Today’s actions from the FCC’s Wireline Competition Bureau include adopting:
- A clarification to enable providers to use streamlined procedures more frequently when they apply to discontinuing copper lines.
- A waiver that allows providers to retire copper networks. This will apply to cases in which replacement voice services are available on a stand-alone basis and those in which the services are available on a bundled basis. The FCC’s pro-consumer pricing protections will remain in place.
- An order that waives unnecessary requirements that would go into effect when a provider stopped offering a service to new customers.
- An order that waives “costly and excessive notice requirements in cases where they provide no demonstrable benefit.” The FCC reports they have processed over 400 network change disclosure filings and never received opposing comment.
“Outdated FCC rules have left Americans sitting in the slow lane for far too long,” FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said in the FCC statement.
“Those FCC rules have forced providers to pour resources into maintaining aging and expensive copper line networks instead of investing in the modern, high-speed infrastructure that Americans want and deserve. We are doing something about that today. We are streamlining the process for retiring decades-old copper networks so that providers can transition consumers and their resources to new, high-speed networks on a faster timeline. We do so by clearing some of the regulatory underbrush that needlessly delays the retirement of those copper networks.”
NTCA – The Rural Broadband Association Executive Vice President Mike Romano released a statement about the FCC copper action, saying, “NTCA thanks Chairman Carr and the Wireline Competition Bureau for their work on several orders released today aimed at streamlining the transition to the delivery of reliable services over advanced wired network technologies.
“Leading up to the adoption of the current technology transitions framework nearly a decade ago, NTCA advocated for rules that focused upon the functionality of services and the customer experience rather than antiquated regulatory classifications. The orders released today reflect a thoughtful and balanced approach to these issues, and we appreciate the commission’s efforts.”
This isn’t the FCC’s only copper action recently. The commission recently announced a spectrum auction to help fund copper replacement projects.
