The FCC recently enacted four rule changes to make it easier for legacy telcos to walk away from copper networks. These changes were adopted by the FCC’s Wireline Competition Bureau, meaning these changes did not come to the full Commission for a vote. While there has been regulatory changes in the past ordered by the various Bureaus within the FCC, it’s unusual for changes of any real importance to be enacted without a full Commissioner vote.

One order allows a telco to turn off copper wires without having to conduct a test to first see if a replacement technology can take over the functions that were being performed by copper. The requirement for having such tests is not eliminated, but the order gives telcos ways to justify not performing the tests.

In rural areas, AT&T is largely replacing copper with FWA wireless. But as anybody who lives in rural America knows, there are huge areas where there are no cell towers and no cellular coverage. The rule being clarified is one that came from the FCC’s 2016 Technology Transition order that requires a telco to prove that a replacement technology can match or exceed the performance of the copper network. The clarification of this new order is that the telco can justify tearing down the old network by saying that the ‘totality of the circumstances’ proves that the change is needed and not conduct testing. We’ll have to see how that works in practice, but it seems like a way to remove copper without having a replacement as long as some adequate number of homes in an area will have a replacement.

Another new order makes it easier for telcos to grandfather copper services. Grandfathering is a term used when a telco agrees to continue selling a product to existing customers while not offering it to new customers. The new rule eliminates the FCC paperwork required to grandfather a product.

Another order provides a two-year moratorium for telcos having to disclose and seek public opinions on changes made to copper network. This change was precipitated by having more than 1,100 such changes that were filed with the FCC since 2021, for which there were no objections or public feedback.

The final new order approved a petition filed by USTelecom on behalf of AT&T, Verizon, and Luman. The waiver asked that the FCC kill the rule to require telcos to offer standalone voice to replace voice lost when a copper network is torn down. The telcos want to be able to offer customers a bundle of services instead that probably includes FWA wireless bundled with voice. The FCC granted the waiver for two years, with a provision that the waiver can be extended.

Taken altogether, these changes eliminate a lot of paperwork involved with tearing down copper networks and remove the paperwork delays in the process. All of the big telcos are actively killing copper networks, with the latest big plans coming from AT&T to kill all copper by the end of 2029.

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said that these changes are only the beginning and that many more regulatory rules will be relaxed or eliminated as part of the FCC’s Delete, Delete, Delete effort.