State urges FCC to move slowly

AT&T said it has received relief from Carrier of Last Resort obligations in 20 of the 21 states in its wireline service territory. Carrier of Last Resort rules require phone companies to provide landline telephone service to any potential customer in their service territory.

The CPUC rejected AT&T’s request to end its California landline obligations in 2024. At the time, the agency urged AT&T to upgrade copper lines to fiber rather than shut down the outdated portions of its network.

In addition to its FCC petition, AT&T filed a lawsuit against California last month seeking an order that would preempt California’s Carrier of Last Resort rules. “California requires AT&T to spend $1 billion each year to maintain a century-old telephone network that almost no one uses,” AT&T alleged in its lawsuit.

Lawsuits can take years, but the FCC may be inclined to act on AT&T’s requests more quickly. Under Chairman Brendan Carr, the FCC issued an order that made it easier for carriers to discontinue copper networks and asserted that state rules are subject to preemption if they conflict with the FCC’s discontinuance authorizations and authority.

California regulators urged the FCC to move with caution. If the agency doesn’t reject AT&T’s applications outright, it should at least remove them from the streamlined process that could result in a quick approval, California said. California could ultimately sue the FCC if the agency tries to preempt the state rules.

“California opposes the applications as presented and respectfully asks the Commission to reject these applications,” the state said. “In the alternative, we ask the Wireline Competition Bureau to remove these applications from the streamlined process and ask the Commission to direct AT&T to address the concerns we have raised here.”