AT&T is suing California and petitioning the FCC to allow it to discontinue its legacy copper wire telephone network, which serves only 3% of households in its territory. The company argues that maintaining the outdated network costs $1 billion annually and that California is the only state among its 21-state territory still enforcing the Carrier of Last Resort obligation. The legal battle highlights the tension between maintaining universal telephone service and transitioning to modern broadband infrastructure.
Background
Carrier of Last Resort (COLR) obligations require telecommunications companies to provide basic telephone service to all customers in their service territory, a legacy regulation from the era of monopoly telephone service. As technology has advanced, maintaining these copper wire networks has become increasingly costly for providers.
- Source
- Ars Technica
- Published
- May 22, 2026 at 05:10 AM
- Score
- 7.0 / 10