Telecommunication

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has rejected a bid by AT&T to no longer be the “carrier of last resort” for phone service in California. The ruling is a win for people who still use landlines. Being a carrier of last resort requires the company to provide basic telephone service. That often means installing and maintaining old fashioned copper landlines for those who have nothing else, and the state’s biggest carrier of last resort is AT&T.

The abrupt failure of Massachusetts’ 911 system on June 18 was a stark example of the disastrous consequences that can occur when an emergency network that is supposed to be reliable is, without warning, suddenly unreliable. The outage, lasting two hours, prompted a scramble among emergency agencies as they directed the public to reach out directly to the local authorities at less-familiar phone numbers or, as a last resort, go in person to their local firehouse.

Network consolidation and centralization of networks is putting our broadband and voice networks in increased jeopardy. It’s easy to understand why carriers are in favor of the savings that come from consolidation, but it’s vital that we recognize and acknowledge the increased risk that comes as a consequence of choosing efficiency over other factors. One area of particular concern is 911 network consolidation.

The Federal Communications Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau (WCB or Bureau) seeks comment on the petition of EMPOWER Broadband (EMPOWER) to expand its Eligible Telecommunications Carrier (ETC) designated service area in Virginia.  EMPOWER seeks to expand its ETC designated service area to become eligible to receive Connect America Fund (CAF) Phase II Auction (Auction 903) support associated with certain census blocks (constituting complete census block groups (CGBs)) in Virginia, a subpart of an original CAF II support award authorized to RiverStreet Communications of Virginia.

The US Supreme Court declined to question the $8 billion annual subsidy that helps cover the cost of telecom services for poor people and residents of rural areas, turning away two appeals that sought to rein in federal regulatory power.

Telephone companies may want to ditch copper and focus on the next best thing (i.e., fiber). But states aren’t about to let them off the hook. According to New Street Research, ILECs seeking to end their carrier of last resort (COLR) obligations are getting pushback from states because consumers might not have another option for internet access—including wireless. A COLR is a telecommunications service provider that’s required to serve upon request all customers within its designated service areas.

I always find it interesting when old regulations bubble up into the news. As reported by Jon Brodkin in Ars Technica, an administrative law judge at the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) rejected a petition by AT&T to walk away from its carrier of last resort obligations for voice service.

Intrepid Fiber Networks is expanding its open access fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) networks with deployments in eight more communities in Colorado and eight more towns in Minnesota. These newly announced communities are in proximity to current Intrepid deployments, representing an organic expansion of its network. These new locations will bring Intrepid’s network to over 400,000 homes and businesses passed across the two states. Intrepid, which was founded in 2021, has quickly made a name for itself because its anchor tenant for its Colorado and Minnesota networks is T-Mobile.

The Fiber Broadband Associations Technology Committee published a new white paper on "The Benefits of Retiring Copper Today." Many telecommunications providers still face unnecessary complexity and expense by continuing to operate legacy copper last-mile broadband infrastructure, especially if they already migrated to fiber in the core and access network.

There are several reasons why a telephone company with legacy copper cables might want to extract those cables. First, copper is valuable. It’s currently priced at an all-time high of more than $5 per pound. And who doesn’t love found money? Secondly, some carriers, such as AT&T, are trying to convert large swathes of their copper plant to fiber.