One of the last vestiges of the copper telecommunications network may soon be history. We are talking specifically about the Carrier of Last Resort (COLR) obligations voice service providers have been subject to for years and still face today in many states. While the requirements differ slightly from state to state, in general COLA obligations include:
The Obligation to Serve: Carriers must provide basic service upon request to any customer within their franchised territory, including extending lines or facilities to remote or rural areas where necessary.
Barriers to Withdrawal: Providers cannot abandon a service area or discontinue services without formal, often lengthy, approval from state or federal regulatory commissions.
Price Controls: Companies must charge “just and reasonable prices” to prevent price gouging or discrimination against less profitable demographics.
Adequate Service: Providers are required to maintain a minimum standard of service quality, ensuring connections are reliable and include basic safety features like access to 911.
Unfortunately, as most customers have moved away from wireline plain old telephone service (POTS) to wireless service or voice over Internet service, carriers are forced to keep their copper networks in place to meet their COLA obligations. Nowhere is this truer than in California as AT&T points out.
The copper wires that once served every home now serve just three percent of Californian households in AT&T’s service territory, and that number shrinks every day as customers switch to modern broadband options that are more affordable, reliable, and energy efficient. Yet California’s outdated regulations persist, requiring AT&T to spend $1 billion a year to maintain a nearly empty copper network that has become an easy mark for criminals—California has already suffered about 2,000 outages from copper thefts this year—and that is estimated to drain the power grid of over 100 million kilowatt-hours each year. (AT&T Petition for Preemption and Declaratory Ruling, Docket 26-125, filed May 20, 2026, at p. 1).
AT&T claims that despite the evidence that copper networks are obsolete, the California Public Utility Commission (CPUC) continues to enforce its COLA requirements.
Unlike its peer states, California maintains procedural and substantive roadblocks that require AT&T to continue providing POTS regardless of the available alternatives. In particular, California’s enduring COLR regime prevents AT&T from discontinuing service unless it receives permission from the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC). The process of seeking and receiving approval is onerous. It is also fruitless: California has made clear that it will not allow AT&T to relinquish its COLR obligations unless another carrier first agrees to become a COLR. Unsurprisingly, no other carrier is willing to assume AT&T’s outdated obligations. (Id., at page 4).
Because of its never-ending California COLA obligations, on May 20, 2026, AT&T filed a Petition for Preemption and Declaratory Ruling (Petition) with the FCC, requesting the Commission to overrule the California COLA rules, based on its 2026 Network Modernization Order. This Order released on March 27, 2026, in Docket 25-209 clears the way for the FCC to preempt the CPUC.
In its Network Modernization Order, the Commission stepped in to break such a self-defeating cycle of regulatory gridlock. Among other things, the Commission took decisive and necessary steps to cut “red tape that has both required providers to keep aging copper lines in place and effectively prevented them from investing in the modern infrastructure that Americans want and deserve.” It also made clear that, when the Commission applies its streamlined procedures and grants a discontinuance, “federal law preempts state and local requirements” that “needlessly constrain the deployment of modern, next-generation IP-based networks.” (Id., at p. 1).
Comments on AT&T’s Petition are due on June 22, 2026. AT&T is sure to get massive industry support. Consumer groups like AARP may feel different. However, continued supporters of copper networks are fighting a losing battle. The only question is when the FCC will allow these obsolete networks to disappear completely.