PSTN-to-IP transition

CenturyLink is seeking the Federal Communications Commission’s permission to shut down a number of low-speed data and analog services in 24 states located in its predecessor company CenturyTel’s territories, citing lack of demand. Specifically, the service provider wants to discontinue seven of its wholesale interstate analog and low-speed data services: Metallic, Telegraph, Narrowband, Wideband analog, Wideband Digital, Program Audio and Analog Video services.

CenturyLink, which offers these services through CenturyLink’s FCC’s Tariff numbers 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, has requested to shut down these analog and low-speed data services by September 22, 2017. The service provider said in its FCC filing that “there are no customers for any of these low-speed analog services.” All of these services were used for applications that were part of a bygone era that have been replaced by more modern IP-based services.

An AT&T-backed bill to end traditional landline phone service in Illinois is now the law of the land. Overriding Gov Bruce Rauner's (R-IL) veto, the General Assembly approved the telecom modernization bill on July 1, enabling AT&T to disconnect its remaining 1.2 million landline customers statewide, pending approval from the Federal Communications Commission. But holdouts may have some time before AT&T pulls the plug for good on its legacy telephone service.

"It's important for our Illinois customers to know that traditional landline phone service from AT&T is not going away anytime soon," said Paul La Schiazza, AT&T Illinois president. With customers switching to internet-based and wireless phone services, AT&T has been pushing for legislation to allow it to unplug its aging landline network and focus on the modern alternatives. AT&T said it is losing about 5,000 landline customers statewide each week, with less than 10 percent of Illinois households in its territory still using the service. While AT&T ultimately needs approval from the FCC to abandon a long-standing obligation to maintain its "plain old telephone service," it has already gotten similar legislation passed in 19 of the 20 other states where it is the legacy telephone carrier, with California as the only holdout.

Verizon has asked the Federal Communications Commission to get rid of the so-called de facto retirements from its copper retirement definition, arguing that it could create uncertainty in the process of shutting down legacy facilities. In the FCC’s 2015 Technology Transitions Order, the FCC defined “copper retirement” as the “removal or disabling of copper loops, subloops, or the feeder portion of such loops or subloops, or the replacement of such loops with fiber-to-the-home loops or fiber-to-the curb loops.” However, the company said that the current process might hold up the process of migrating what it calls “chronic” copper customers, or those that have had multiple service visits to resolve issues.

"The 'de facto' concept should be removed because it introduces significant uncertainty to the copper retirement process,” Verizon said in a FCC filing. “Among other practical problems, the vague de facto retirement concept could result in unmanageable loop-by-loop retirement requirements or complicate a provider’s ability to move customers to fiber when that is the best and most efficient way to resolve troubles they are experiencing with copper facilities.”

The small city of Hull in northern England is planning to be one of the first places in Europe to consign its telephone lines to history. By the end of 2017, between 150,000 and 180,000 of Hull’s 210,000 buildings will be using the city’s super-fast fibre broadband network. That means it is time, according to Bill Halbert, the head of the local telecoms company KCOM, to start thinking about decommissioning the old copper telephone network. “Copper cannot handle the future,” said Halbert, who pointed out that most British households are now running seven to nine devices off their internet network and that fibre-optic cables are the only option. “It has to be fibre all the way. That’s one of the big national challenges for our economy.” If the city gets rid of its phone lines, it would follow in the footsteps of Svalbard, the Norwegian archipelago, and the Channel island of Jersey. Palaiseau, outside Paris, is also planning to ditch the old wires in 2018.

AT&T-supported legislation in Illinois that would eliminate a requirement for the telco to offer landline voice service, or "plain old telephone service," has been met with opposition from the Citizens Utility Board (CUB) and the AARP, igniting new debate on legacy services. Senate Bill 1381, which was passed 56-2 May 24, would abolish the state requirement that incumbent carrier AT&T offer traditional phone service. CUB said that the bill would set in motion a process that would eventually allow the company to send "cease to offer" notices to its 1.2 million business and residential landline customers in Illinois. Additionally, the legislation would increase phone rates for current customers by allowing AT&T to eliminate the low-cost "Consumer's Choice" local calling plans.