Johnny KampisFor far too long, outdated regulations have forced telecommunications providers to maintain copper networks that most Americans stopped relying on years ago. At its meeting this week, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has the opportunity to correct this mistake by allowing carriers to finally retire these antiquated systems — rules that currently cost providers tens of billions of dollars annually and slow the transition to faster, more reliable networks.
“For too long, outdated regulations have forced providers to keep consumers on antiquated networks,” said FCC Chairman Brendan Carr. “We will cut through that red tape with this decision. This FCC vote will finally allow those Americans to benefit from an upgrade to next-gen infrastructure.”
The FCC also said that any local and state laws or regulations that conflict with the Commission’s plan to retire copper lines are subject to preemption.
In comments to the FCC on “Accelerating Network Modernization,” the Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) warned that outdated federal rules force carriers to maintain costly copper-based networks long after most Americans stopped using them.
Current IP interconnection requirements keep legacy time-division multiplexing equipment online, even as switched access lines fell 45% between June 2021 and June 2024 and now make up less than 4% of retail voice connections.
Once the backbone of home and business calls, these dial-tone networks are now relics, growing more obsolete by the day.
The FCC approving this rule should drive incentives to interconnect in IP by adopting a light-touch regime that includes a default obligation for carriers to accept traffic delivered over the public internet. This would help smaller, rural carriers avoid extraneous transit costs by taking advantage of existing internet connectivity agreements.
Removing barriers to IP traffic exchange and incentivizing providers to make the transition to all-IP technology are critical to reaching a modernized network landscape. Importantly, local exchange carriers say that key benefits of the transition would include improved 911 emergency response, multimedia communication, better system reliance and reliability, and future-proofing.
USTelecom praised the FCC’s plan, with President and CEO Jonathan Spalter saying that, “With this draft order, the FCC is working toward updating rules to reflect reality, accelerating America’s transition from outdated copper infrastructure to the modern, high-speed networks consumers consistently choose and rely on.”
Eliminating copper lines should also help reduce broadband infrastructure vandalism. Copper has long been a target for thieves, but now broadband infrastructure is squarely in their crosshairs. As criminals strip cables from poles and dig up underground lines, the cost of replacing the stolen materials is skyrocketing, and consumers and taxpayers are being forced to pick up the tab.
In many cases, essential services such as 911 services and hospitals have temporarily lost communication abilities due to these illegal acts. It’s no wonder that many impacted consumers and telecommunications industry analysts have branded the malfeasance as domestic terrorism.
There has been pushback from the affected parties on the issue. NCTA (The Internet & Television Association) advocates for commonsense scrap metal regulations and enforcing ethical practices within the scrap metal industry to eliminate or at least reduce an outlet for thieves to sell their stolen copper. Companies have also invested in better surveillance and security personnel to safeguard their networks.
A 2024 report from NCTA found how widescale this problem is. There were 5,700 reported incidents of intentional theft and/or vandalism targeting communications infrastructure in the last six months of 2024. That averages out to 27 incidents per day.
The FCC plan would modernize telecom rules and help speed the industry’s shift away from inefficient copper lines and toward more efficient wireless and fiber networks. It would also improve quality, security, and innovation. It’s long past time to retire relic infrastructure and let American networks compete on the technology of today, not yesterday.
Johnny Kampis is director of telecom policy for the Taxpayers Protection Alliance.
The main thing to be said for keeping the old copper network in some areas is that dial-tone service works even when your power is off. Modern, IP based services do not. I know of at least one family in rural SW VA who live where there’s no cell service to be had at all. They keep an old rotary phone connected to their copper line for this exact reason, despite the fact that they have gigabit fiber available.
Retiring copper phone lines is a financially attractive move for telecom carriers and a rhetorically easy sell in normal times. But policy made for normal times fails in abnormal ones — and the whole point of resilient communications infrastructure is to function when everything else has broken down.
Cellular networks saturate under emergency load. Personal devices run out of power. IP systems go dark when the internet does. Copper, humble and unglamorous as it is, keeps working.
Before the FCC votes to preempt state and local protections and accelerate the elimination of these lines, it should answer one straightforward question: what replaces copper when you need emergency assistance, the power is out, the towers are down, and your phone battery is at 3%? Until there’s a credible answer, pulling the copper is a bet Americans can’t afford to lose.
TPA is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit advocacy group, which is not required to publicly disclose its donors, and acknowledges it receives funding from “allied advocacy or industry sources.” TPA often aligns with positions of major cable and telecom companies and has been active alongside industry-backed campaigns opposing public broadband expansion.
I am amazed that it is taking so long for this to be implemented. We’ve had fiber-optic technology available for over 3 decades! Copper telephone lines should have been phased out at least 2 decades ago.
First, the existence of fiber for 30+ years doesn’t mean it was economically or logistically viable everywhere that long. Large-scale deployment requires trenching, permitting, rights-of-way, and billions in capital—especially in rural or low-density areas where the return on investment is weak. Telecom networks aren’t upgraded like smartphones; they’re massive, regulated infrastructure projects.
Second, copper didn’t persist out of neglect—it persisted because it was already paid for, highly reliable, and self-powered. Traditional landlines can continue working during power outages, which is a critical advantage for emergency communications. Replacing that with fiber often requires backup power solutions that aren’t always consistently implemented at the customer level. Consider the cost shift to the consumer when you need to provide batteries, generators, solar, or wind to power your connection and recharge your devices.
Third, legacy systems are deeply embedded in public safety and critical services—alarm systems, medical monitoring, and parts of the 911 infrastructure were built around copper. A rushed phase-out could have created serious reliability gaps.
Finally, the transition has been happening—just gradually. Fiber has expanded aggressively over the past 10–15 years, but phasing out a nationwide legacy network requires coordination among regulators, providers, and consumers, not just technology availability.
It’s not delay for its own sake—it’s the reality of balancing cost, reliability, safety, and infrastructure scale.
Over my dead body. I do not own a cellphone.