Tag Archives: Wireline Competition Bureau

Making it Easier to Kill Copper

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.

About the FCC

I have probably averaged a blog a week over the years talking in some manner about the FCC. I thought today I’d discuss a few basic facts about the industry that might help a non-regulatory person understand how they operate.

The FCC’s mission statement is straightforward – the stated mission of the FCC is to ensure that the American people have available—at reasonable cost and without discrimination—rapid, efficient, nation- and worldwide communication services, whether by radio, television, wire, satellite, or cable.

The FCC is an independent agency, meaning it’s not under the direct control of either Congress or the White House. With that said, each new administration gets to select at least a few FCC commissioners, but can’t have more than three of the five commissioners from the same party as the president.

Since 2009 the FCC has been funded through regulatory fees it collects from various industry sources such as annual licenses on cable TV providers, long distance providers, or owners of spectrum. The budget for the year just started on October 1 is $322 million. Starting this year, none of the monies collected from spectrum auctions can count towards the FCC’s budget. The Ray Baum Act that authorized the FCC earlier this year is the first FCC reauthorization bill since 1990. The agency could theoretically operate indefinitely without reauthorization as long as it generates enough fees to cover its budget.

The FCC has a lot of flexibility in determining how it will regulate the various industry. Their authority is only limited by specific rules established by Congress, such as the Communications Act of 1934 that created the FCC or the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Congressional bills that change FCC regulations are somewhat rare, but Congress may pass a number of bills in any year that change some specific aspect of operating the agency. In this past year there were bills that did such things as change the reporting requirements by educational broadcast stations, eliminated some obsolete reports that were prepared for Congress, and established the office of Inspector General at the FCC.

The FCC can establish new rules for regulating the various industries as long as those rules don’t conflict with past Congressional mandate. Many of the challenges that are filed against new FCC decisions question if the FCC’s actions are in conflict with the authority granted to the agency by Congress. The extent and limitations of the FCC’s authority has been defined over the years by a series of court decisions.

The FCC’s rules are encapsulated into seven sections, called ‘Titles’. The FCC rules that govern the telecom industry are included in a few of the Titles:

  • Title II regulates Common Carriers that include telephone companies, CLECs, wireless providers and long-haul fiber networks. Some of the regulation in Title II must be coordinated with a Joint Board, that includes both FCC and state regulators.
  • Title III regulates broadcasting of radio and television.
  • Title VI regulates cable TV communications, including Video programming provided by telephone companies.

The day-to-day functions of the FCC are carried out by 7 bureaus – the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau, the Enforcement Bureau, the International Bureau, the Media Bureau, the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau, the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau and the Wireline Competition Bureau.

Most FCC rules are adopted using a process known as ‘notice and comment’ that are defined in Title I. The FCC will issue various forms of proposed rules and anybody in the public can comment.

The public is also free to file complaints to the FCC about actions by regulated companies that have harmed them. The FCC has a defined process for handling such complaints, and most are referred back to the offending regulated party with instructions to explain their actions of make amends if they acted incorrectly.

There is also a more formal process for regulated companies to make complaints against each other, or which seek resolution of industry disputes and the FCC has Administrative Judges that hear such complaints and make rulings or assess fines. Many of the ‘orders’ we see from the FCC, such as a whole series of rulings over the last few years about access charges, are actually rulings from Administrative Judges and not from the FCC Commissioners.

The FCC also has an Engineering and Technology bureau that advises the FCC on technical issues such as spectrum allocations. This group also authorizes the use of equipment, and most telecom equipment must be approved by the FCC before it can be introduced into the public networks. This group also can grant the use of experimental licenses to test new ideas in the field.