California Assembly Committee Advances Broadband Affordability, Copper Retirement Bills
A similar affordability law went into effect in New York earlier this year.
Jake Neenan
WASHINGTON, May 1, 2025 – The California State Assembly's communications committee advanced two broadband bills Wednesday, both of which will now be taken up by the chamber’s appropriations committee.
The committee cleared the California Affordable Home Internet Act, which would require broadband providers to charge no more than $15 per month for service to low-income households. Speeds would have to be at least 100 megabits per second download and 20 Mbps upload, in line with the federal definition of high-speed broadband, and eligibility would be tied to participation in certain public assistance programs.
Lawmakers are now considering working a carve-out into the bill for ISPs with fewer than 50,000 subscribers. The bill’s author Assemblymember Tasha Boerner, emphasized the legislation was still a work in progress and that she was open to negotiating with stakeholders on tailoring the bill.
“I’m willing to look at the 50,000. How do we work with who’s small, who’s unduly impacted, what if they’re the only provider? I’m willing to work on all this,” she said. “But we have to start from a place of ‘What do hardworking, low-income Californians deserve to be part of our economy, get access to healthcare, and be part of the educational system?’”
After a prolonged legal battle, a similar law went into effect in New York earlier this year. That law requires $15 per month for slower speeds than the California bill, or $20 per month for 200 Mbps download plans. It includes a carve-out for ISPs with fewer than 20,000 subscribers and allows small annual increases.
The telecom industry had sued to block the New York law and is opposed the California bill. Trade groups told the Supreme Court, which declined to review a ruling upholding the New York law, last year that they feared other states following New York’s lead.
Jeremy Crandell, assistant vice president of state legislative affairs at CTIA, testified in opposition to Boerner’s bill on Wednesday, as did a representative from the Rural Counties Representatives of California who warned small providers in sparsely populated areas would need a carve out.
“Fixed wireless access is offering consumers more choice when it comes to home broadband,” Crandell said. “ Artificial price mandates should not threaten that choice.”
At least Vermont and Massachusetts are also considering affordable broadband legislation.
Carrier of Last Resort
The committee also voted to advance a bill that would give telecom providers an easier path to losing their carrier of last resort, or COLR, status in unpopulated areas and areas where three alternative voice providers offer comparable service. The state requires carriers of last resort to maintain infrastructure in areas where they have that designation, an effort to avoid consumers being left without essential communications services.
The bill would also direct the California Public Utilities Commission, the state’s utility regulator, to determine a process for carriers to amend their COLR status in other areas by 2027. The CPUC has a rulemaking currently underway considering changes to its COLR regulations.
AT&T, the largest carrier of last resort in the state, is making a nationwide push to tear up its old copper network by 2029, as the infrastructure is expensive to maintain and can’t provide competitive broadband service.
That plan does not include California, the only state in which it wasn’t able to secure a legislative or regulatory avenue for retiring its legacy network. The carrier’s bid to shed COLR status in large areas of the state was denied by the CPUC last year.
“This bill does not turn off anyone’s copper landline service,” Terri Nikole Baca, vice president of legislative affairs at AT&T, testified to lawmakers. “What this bill does do is establish a plan. A plan through which COLRs can begin migrating well-served legacy telephone customers from an antiquated network of the past to modern communications services.”
The Federal Communications Commission, which also has rules around decommissioning copper, moved to alleviate some requirements and streamline the application process last month. The agency also approved as an adequate replacement a separate AT&T product that mimics the functionality of a landline, including faxing and alarm systems, but connects to its wireless or fiber networks.
Regina Costa, telecom policy director at The Utility Reform Network, testified in opposition to the carrier of last resort legislation.
“AT&T is laser focused on eliminating the COLR requirement so that it can shrink its service territory,” she said. “This requirement needs to be updated, but the CPUC is doing that as we speak.”
