FCC Sweeps Away Decades of Copper Wiring Regulations
Federal Communications Commission
The FCC is clearing out the regulatory underbrush by removing decades-old rules governing copper wires and legacy networks, and replacing them with a streamlined framework designed to accelerate the deployment of next-generation, IP-based infrastructure.
Carriers no longer need to file network change disclosures with the Commission for short-term changes or copper retirements, but can simply post the updates on their own websites or industry portals.
The rule obliterates the confusing "Adequate Replacement" and "Alternative Options" tests, and replaced those tests with a consolidated test for technology transition discontinuances.
A carrier can fast-track the shutdown of a retail voice service if it certifies that a replacement is universally available in the affected area, including:
Facilities-based interconnected VoIP service.
Facilities-based mobile wireless service operating at speeds of at least 5/1 Mbps.
Voice service offered pursuant to a modernized high-cost support program.
The carrier’s own alternative voice service offering substantially similar performance.
A widely available third-party alternative voice service.
Knowing that time is money, the FCC has standardized the automatic grant period to discontinue applications, regardless of whether the carrier is dominant or non-dominant, to now automatically be granted 31 days after public notice.
This cuts the timeline in half for dominant carriers, allowing providers to gain blanket Section 214(a) authority to grandfather legacy voice services, data services below 25/3 Mbps, and interconnected VoIP provisioned over copper.
When wholesale providers pull the plug on a legacy service, the downstream resellers are granted conditional forbearance.
They are entirely exempt from filing their own discontinuance applications, provided they immediately alert their customers.
For critical infrastructure, carriers shutting down interconnection trunks or 911-supporting circuits must coordinate with 911 authorities at least 90 days before filing.
The FCC explicitly refused to grant blanket Section 214(a) forbearance for all discontinuances, and blanket grandfathering authority does not extend to interconnected VoIP services provisioned over non-copper lines.
Broadband-only service cannot qualify as a standalone replacement for voice telephony.
Additionally, rules governing the dismantling of trunk lines and the severing of physical connections remain strictly in place to protect emergency services.
The FCC drew a hard jurisdictional line on state interference. State laws forcing carriers to maintain legacy POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) against federal authorizations are officially preempted.
"If state and local requirements prevent a provider from discontinuing the interstate portion of a legacy voice service for which the Commission has already granted discontinuance authorization... then the requirements negate a valid federal regulatory objective because the interstate impacts of the state or local requirements cannot be unbundled from the intrastate aspects of those requirements."
