AT&T forced to migrate copper to fiber in areas of fire-ravaged California

AT&T is going to replace copper wiring in parts of its California market damaged by fires due to drought conditions and high winds with fiber facilities. Major damage to public facilities was caused five counties of Northern California: Napa, Solano, Sonoma, Lake and Mendocino due to the result of 21 reported fires. AT&T filed an application for emergency authorization under Section 214(a) of the Communications Act and Section 63.63 of the Federal Communications Commission’s rules to suspend AT&T’s interstate telecommunications services until services can be rebuilt. AT&T determined that due to the Nuns, Tubbs, Redwood and Sulphur wild fires, the copper feeder plant to specific distribution areas were destroyed beyond repair in portions of Sonoma, Ukiah, Santa Rosa, Sonoma, Lower Lake. In Florida, AT&T is also being forced to migrate its copper facilities in the Florida Keys to a fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) network infrastructure due to severe damage caused by last September’s Hurricane Irma. Like the California wildfires, AT&T determined that Hurricane Irma left its copper network beyond repair and that it would need to rebuild it with fiber facilities.