California says AT&T lied to FCC in attempt to shut off old phone network

FCC considers AT&T petitions to preempt state rules and discontinue phone service

California state regulators say AT&T lied to the Federal Communications Commission in an attempt to shut off its old copper phone network without providing an adequate replacement.

“AT&T asserts that California seeks to prohibit or hinder wireline carriers from discontinuing copper facilities and investing in fiber,” said a June 15 filing by the state of California and the California Public Utilities Commission. “Indeed, AT&T has been making this argument for years. It is not and has never been true.”

As we reported last month, AT&T sued California over the state’s refusal to let it stop providing phone service to all potential customers in its wireline network territory. AT&T also petitioned the Federal Communications Commission to declare that California cannot enforce its rules and to let AT&T stop providing service to about 199,000 phone customers.

Although California officials say AT&T is allowed to upgrade copper lines to better technology, such as fiber, AT&T has repeatedly claimed state rules force it to maintain the copper lines. For example, AT&T told the FCC in a petition that “in California, the aging, fragile, and expensive copper lines are still there, frozen in time by California regulations enacted by prior generations for the benefit of prior generations.” AT&T told the FCC in another filing that “California requires AT&T to continue offering POTS [Plain Old Telephone Service] throughout its territory.”

California told the FCC that, in reality, the CPUC declined to adopt rules that would prevent phone companies from replacing copper lines with fiber. In a 2008 decision, it decided that such rules would “discourage and delay fiber systems from being built in California, contrary to clear state legislative direction to bring affordable and widespread high quality communications services to all Californians.”