CEOs Call for Regulatory Reform to Retire Copper Networks

WASHINGTON, Nov. 26, 2024 – Industry leaders emphasized the urgent need to retire outdated copper networks to accelerate broadband deployment and modernize the nation's infrastructure, during USTelecom’s 2024 Broadband Investment Forum.

“Every dollar spent on copper is a dollar that cannot be spent on fiber,” Tom Maguire, president & CEO of Brightspeed remarked, illustrating the significant financial strain maintaining copper infrastructure places on broadband providers. Brightspeed, one of the largest regional broadband providers in the U.S., focuses on rural and suburban markets.

Exacerbated by theft, weather damage, and aging infrastructure, the costs of maintaining copper networks continue to divert millions of dollars from next-generation fiber projects, Maguire said, citing over 450 instances of copper theft in a single state that cost his company “well over” $1 million in repairs.

“Being tethered to copper, when, I think, everyone readily recognizes it’s incapable of satisfying the needs of customers today, is just insane,” Maguire remarked. “We want to get rid of copper in the next four years.”

“We’re still regulated to have to keep copper networks in place,” said Bob Udell, president & CEO of Consolidated Communications, a broadband provider operating across 20 states, currently in the process of being sold to private equity firm Searchlight Capital Partners.

Udell highlighted federal regulations that mandate that Incumbent Local Exchange Carriers, or ILECs, continue to offer copper-based services in certain areas unless they go through a complex approval process to retire copper. 

These regulations were designed in the 1980s after the break up of AT&T to protect customers who rely on the service, particularly in rural areas or during emergencies. Now, 40 years later, industry leaders called for updated regulations that would allow providers to retire copper networks more quickly and reinvest in fiber.

“Everybody is better served if we move onto modern technologies,” said Harold Zeitz, CEO of Ziply Fiber, which serves customers in the Pacific Northwest and is in the process of being sold to BCE Inc. through its subsidiary Bell Canada. Zeitz stressed that fiber offers the scalability, reliability, and speed necessary to support future connectivity demands.

“We are internet companies. What this country should want us to be doing is putting robust internet in the ground, not maintaining outdated copper,” Leigh Fox, president & CEO of altafiber, a regional fiber provider operating in Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana, added. 

Despite these challenges, industry leaders remained optimistic about the path forward. They highlighted the role of federal programs like the $42.45 billion Broadband, Equity, Access, and Deployment initiative in complementing these efforts.

“If we don’t fix this, the cost of maintaining copper will continue to hold back progress,” Maguire concluded.