FCC’s March Agenda: Copper Retirement, Call Center Onshoring

WASHINGTON, March 5, 2026 – The Federal Communications Commission is set to vote on relaxing copper retirement rules and a proposal to incentivize U.S. companies to onshore call centers.

The copper retirement order would give providers blanket authority to grandfather legacy services over copper wire, meaning they won’t be offered to new customers, and eliminate various filing requirements.

The item would adopt “one consolidated rule applicable to all technology transitions discontinuance applications and eliminating rule provisions thereby rendered irrelevant,” the public draft posted Thursday said. It would automatically grant discontinuance applications from dominant carriers after 31 days, shortening the current 60-day automatic grant window, among several other things.