The FCC’s orders to roll back regulation on legacy network retirement are the first steps in a larger effort to clear the sector’s “regulatory underbrush”
The FCC has waived a series of rules related to copper network retirement, an early action in support of Chairman Carr’s Delete, Delete, Delete agenda
On 20 March 2025, the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced a series of orders to roll back regulation related to copper network retirement. The set of four orders, to be carried out by the FCC’s Wireline Competition Bureau, are described as an initial effort to “clear out the regulatory underbrush” delaying legacy network retirement and tying up investment that could be channelled into the rollout of high-speed broadband networks. The FCC is able to suspend these rules without a vote of the full Commission by issuing a time-limited waiver (at least two years, in this case) for obligations which it attests are in conflict with the public interest – which the regulator identifies here as faster copper retirement. Brendan Carr (Chairman, FCC) stated that the regulator’s ambition is to “free up billions of dollars for new networks” through deregulation. He has consistently refused to specify a technological preference for those new networks, which aligns with the expectation that the FCC will be more supportive of wireless and satellite-based connectivity as a replacement for copper-based services moving forward. While the orders released on copper retirement are not part of Carr’s Delete, Delete, Delete initiative to invite public feedback on regulation to be rolled back, it is expected that the FCC will continue to act swiftly in removing regulatory requirements placed on operators, particularly when the FCC gains a Republican majority in the coming months.
Operators will no longer be required to certify their public notifications of network retirement or their stop-sell plans with the regulator
Across the four orders, the FCC removed obligations related to how operators disclose plans to discontinue legacy services, how they carry out those plans and what services consumers are offered as a replacement for discontinued services. Beginning with the announcement of copper retirement plans, the FCC has waived the requirement that operators certify with the regulator that they’ve provided sufficient public notice for network changes and removed the related waiting period (at least 90 days for copper retirement) during which interconnecting operators were able to object to a change. The regulator noted that it had processed more than 400 public disclosure filings for network changes in the past two years and received no comments or objections in response, suggesting the obligations for regulator certification and waiting periods have been burdensome as well as unnecessary. Operators are still expected to issue a public notice through their own website or other industry outlets and directly notify interconnecting operators of planned changes. Additionally, operators seeking to issue a stop-sell on legacy services (referred to as “grandfathering” a service by the FCC) will no longer have to seek authorisation from the regulator. The FCC stated that it expects operators to continue to notify consumers of its plans to issue stop-sells and hopes that removing requirements to first seek regulatory approval will enable operators to issue that notice sooner and support customers in transitioning away from legacy services more quickly. Operators will still be required to seek a case-by-case authorisation to fully discontinue any legacy service from the FCC.
Bundled services that include voice offerings will be accepted as a suitable replacement for legacy standalone voice services
When legacy services are retired, the FCC will also now give operators more flexibility in the replacement services they offer to consumers. In response to a petition filed by USTelecom, an industry body representing operators across the country, the regulator will waive requirements that legacy voice services be replaced by a standalone voice service. Operators will be able to instead discontinue standalone voice services and offer consumers voice service through a bundled offering as a replacement. The FCC will also allow operators flexibility to achieve the requirements of the Adequate Replacement Test through a bundled service offering. The test was established in 2016 through the FCC’s Technology Transitions Order and requires that replacement services following a discontinuation meet certain standards, including:
One or more replacement service(s) offers substantially similar levels of network infrastructure and service quality;
The replacement service complies with regulations regarding the availability and functionality of 911 service for consumers and public safety answering points; and
The replacement service offers interoperability with key applications and functionalities.
This means that no single replacement standalone service must satisfy all conditions set out by the Adequate Replacement Test, but the ability of all services offered in a bundle can be assessed in the aggregate instead. Bundled services will still be assessed by the FCC to ensure that their replacement of standalone services does not result in unreasonable price increases for consumers.
Operators will be able to bypass performance testing in replacing legacy services with new offerings based on other technologies, subject to state-level regulation
In an order to clarify existing rules, the FCC has also provided operators more flexibility in replacing legacy services with services reliant on different technologies. Operators will be able to assert replacement services’ abilities to meet the first condition of the Adequate Replacement Test on network infrastructure and service quality without conducting performance testing. Instead, they can certify to the regulator that the “totality of the circumstances” of a replacement service meet the standards for replicated service. The FCC claims that this self-certification has been possible under the terms of the Technology Transition Order already, but the lack of clarity in the order has been an impediment to operators seeking to replace legacy services with new offerings based on other technologies, such as replacing copper-based voice services with wireless-based offerings. The FCC’s position will not, however, take precedence over state-level requirements placed on so-called Carriers of Last Resort (COLR) which, in some states, require that designated operators maintain services based on a specified technology for geographic regions that would otherwise go unserved. In California, the state-level regulator refused AT&T’s 2024 application to be released from its COLR obligations to provide PSTN-based voice services, in part due to the unreliability of the electricity grid and the communications services that rely on it in light of the regular and serious threat of wildfires. As state regulators appear more inclined to maintain or extend new consumer protections around legacy network retirements but also service affordability (as in New York), Carr’s plans for deregulation could be complicated and lead to a more fractured national market for nationwide operators.
