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  "description": "The agency will also vote on a measure eliminating regulations without a notice and comment process.",
  "path": "/fcc-to-propose-making-march-copper-waivers-permanent/",
  "publishedAt": "2025-07-08T23:05:46.000Z",
  "site": "https://broadbandbreakfast.com",
  "tags": [
    "All Videos from Speeding BEAD Summit",
    "_public draft_",
    "_temporary basis in March_",
    "_July 24 meeting_",
    "_favorable conditions_",
    "_ongoing rulemaking_",
    "_wire centers_",
    "_opposed the applications_",
    "_aiming to scrap_"
  ],
  "textContent": "WASHINGTON, July 8, 2025 – Federal regulators are looking to make it easier for telecom companies to rip up their old copper lines, something the industry has been pursuing as maintenance costs rise and customer interest declines.\n\nThe Federal Communications Commission is aiming to propose making permanent many recent temporary changes to its copper retirement rules, plus new rule changes aimed at easing the process for ISPs.\n\nCopper is expensive to maintain and no longer offers competitive broadband speeds, so providers have been eager to rip up their aging infrastructure as quickly as possible. FCC Chairman **Brendan Carr** has said it's a goal of his to facilitate the process.\n\n\n\n_****FROM SPEEDING BEAD SUMMIT****_\n _****Panel 1: How Are States Thinking About Reasonable Costs Now?****_\n_****Panel 2: Finding the State Versus Federal Balance in BEAD****_\n _****Panel 3: Reacting to the New BEAD NOFO Guidance****_\n _****Panel 4: Building, Maintaining and Adopting Digital Workforce Skills****_\n\n All Videos from Speeding BEAD Summit \n\n“Our goal can be stated simply: We are aiming to free up billions of dollars for new networks, instead of forcing providers to keep investing in old ones,” he said in a speech in South Dakota Wednesday.\n\nA _public draft_ of the document would propose eliminating the agency’s filing requirements for network changes, including copper retirement, and eliminating filing requirements for grandfathering legacy services, both of which the FCC did on a _temporary basis in March_.\n\nThe draft would also seek comment on scrapping current rules around replacement services – copper telecom lines typically can’t be decommissioned quickly unless an adequate alternative service is present in the area, either from the decommissioning ISP or someone else – and replacing them with an easier to satisfy standard, among other things.\n\nThe agency is set to vote on the item at its _July 24 meeting_, its second with a Republican majority in the Trump administration.\n\nAT&T has been making a push to rip up by the end of 2029 its remaining copper outside of California. The company has said it secured _favorable conditions_ with other state legislators and utility regulators, but California’s carrier of last resort rules make it harder to decommission there.\n\nThe carrier and other telecom companies and trade groups are still pushing the state to update its rules as part of an _ongoing rulemaking_.\n\nAT&T filed applications earlier this year to grandfather legacy services across about 25 percent of its copper _wire centers_. The Communications Workers of America _opposed the applications_, saying the carrier would be stranding some rural customers that won’t get fiber. The company is planning to build fiber to 50 percent of its geographic copper footprint, which it says covers about 90 percent of the footprint’s population.\n\nThe agency is also _aiming to scrap_ 18 other rules without a notice and comment process. It would be an implementation of an executive order from President **Donald Trump** directing agencies to ax regulations using a formerly narrow exemption in the Administrative Procedure Act.\n\nThe targeted rules relate to telegraphs, phone booths, and other rules “identified as outdated and obsolete,” according to the agency.\n\nThe draft order would provide 10 days for parties to offer feedback on the rule deletions and clarify that bureaus and offices can use the same process for eliminating rules.",
  "title": "FCC to Propose Making March Copper Waivers Permanent",
  "updatedAt": "2026-03-11T03:26:36.868Z"
}