Failure to modernize copper to fiber reaches inflection point

Ensuring everyone can access modern broadband networks requires not only financial investments but also the support of forward-looking public policy. Unfortunately, the regulatory environment in some states, like California, is hindering these much-needed investments. Outdated regulations such as Carrier of Last Resort, or COLR, require providers to overlook the needs of the vast majority of consumers and prevent investments in modern networks. It’s worth noting Congress and many state legislatures have invested a historic number of resources towards high-speed broadband expansion in hard-to-serve areas; however, none of these programs are intended for preserving legacy voice services.

Today, public policies in California and states across the country should prioritize connecting as many households as possible and ensuring broadband access reaches underserved communities.

https://www.attconnects.com/how-broadband-networks-helped-create-21st-century-technology/

Some background here. AT&T California is petitioning the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) for geographically targeted relief from its Title II common carrier utility regulatory requirement to provide landline voice telephone service to any customer requesting a connection. It contends fixed prem wireless service served by its mobile wireless network will provide a reliable voice replacement in less densely populated areas where its isn’t deploying fiber to replace legacy copper POTS infrastructure.

Not everyone is convinced. Understandably so considering wireless is designed primarily for mobile use and can degrade in quality when too many users are using the system, particularly since these networks carry both voice and data. Wireless signals can also be less reliable in these areas that frequently feature hilly terrain and vegetation that can interfere with them.

AT&T contends the COLR requirement requires it to “wastefully” maintain “two duplicative networks:” the legacy copper POTS network as well as a “forward looking fiber” network. The problem with the tortured, ahistoric logic of this argument is AT&T and other large telecommunications companies have had decades to look ahead and modernize their copper POTS delivery infrastructure to fiber -- state of the art delivery infrastructure then and now. But because their investors are averse to this significant capital investment that cuts into earnings and shareholder dividends, the fiber future was cancelled in areas where the cost of building and operating it runs higher than others.

The delay in that crucial transition has now reached what AT&T properly characterizes as an inflection point, one that became painfully apparent during the public health measures taken during the COVID-19 pandemic stage. The issue lies not with CPUC’s COLR regulations but with AT&T’s shareholders whose interests don’t align with the broader public interest of modernizing the legacy copper POTS delivery infrastructure to fiber. The relevant public policy question is should the company's shareholders be rewarded for sitting on the sidelines for so long, leaving the nation years behind where it should be for advanced telecom?