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# California Asks Court to Toss AT&T’s Copper Retirement Suit
- URL: https://broadbandbreakfast.com/california-asks-court-to-toss-at-ts-copper-retirement-suit/
- Published: 2026-07-31T22:45:28.000Z
- Updated: 2026-08-21T21:47:40.000Z
- Description: State regulators say AT&T’s federal preemption claim lacks merit.
- Author: Jericho Casper
- Tags: USF, #with-siderail, AT&T, CPUC, Rob Bonta, Linda Lopez, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, COLR, copper

WASHINGTON, July 31, 2026 – California Attorney General Rob Bonta (D) and state regulators filed a motion Thursday to dismiss AT&T’s lawsuit challenging the state’s rules that require it to provide basic telephone service.

The motion, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, is the latest turn in a fight that has been building since AT&T sued the California Public Utilities Commission and Bonta [in May](https://broadbandbreakfast.com/at-t-sues-california-over-copper-landline-mandate/), after asking federal regulators to find that federal law preempts the state’s carrier of last resort, or COLR, rules.

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As California’s largest designated COLR, AT&T has been required to offer phone service upon request to all residential and business customers within the service territories it covers since 1996.

The company’s core argument is that California’s COLR rules force it to keep spending money on aging copper infrastructure even after the Federal Communications Commission’s March *Network Modernization Order* gave carriers blanket authority to grandfather legacy voice service delivered over copper. AT&T says that conflict amounts to preemption under Section 214 of the Communications Act.

California disagrees, and it isn’t a new argument for the state. The state’s Public Utilities Commission has told AT&T for years, including when it rejected the company’s 2023 bid to shed COLR status in parts of its territory, that its rules don’t require the company to maintain copper, or any particular technology. 

“Both for lack of jurisdiction and because AT&T’s preemption claim lacks merit, this Court should dismiss AT&T’s Complaint with prejudice,” the filing submitted by Bonta and state regulators finds.

The state’s brief leans heavily on [a July 16 ruling](https://broadbandbreakfast.com/at-t-loses-bid-to-temporarily-halt-california-landline-obligations/) from U.S. District Judge **Linda** **Lopez**, who denied AT&T’s request for a preliminary injunction in the case, finding AT&T has been free to deliver basic voice service over something other than copper since the CPUC made its rules technology neutral back in 2012.

Because of that, the state argues AT&T has no standing to sue in the first place. The motion contends the company never identifies a specific COLR provision that actually bars it from retiring copper, and hasn’t alleged that regulators have threatened enforcement over its plan to do so.

“AT&T has failed to plausibly allege that its desire to grandfather the service offered over its copper wire facilities would result in a violation of the COLR requirements to provide basic service. To the contrary: if AT&T grandfathers the service offered over its copper wire facilities and continues to offer basic service through another technological means, there would be no violation of the law or the regulations in the first place. This Court consequently lacks subject matter jurisdiction to adjudicate AT&T’s preemption challenge,” the filing states.

Defendants argued that even if the court considers the substance of AT&T’s claims, there can be no preemption as a matter of law because there is no conflict between California’s technology neutral COLR rules and the FCC’s *Network Modernization Order*.

AT&T has separately asked the FCC to let it discontinue legacy copper voice service to more than 184,000 locations in the state, an [application that was approved](https://broadbandbreakfast.com/at-t-gets-fcc-approval-for-calif-copper-retirement/). 

AT&T has maintained it is [investing $19 billion](https://broadbandbreakfast.com/at-t-brings-connectivity-to-california-through-19-billion-investment/) to upgrade its fiber and wireless networks, and that existing customers can keep their traditional landline service until it is discontinued on June 1, 2027.

AT&T did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication.