House Dems Oppose FCC Preempting Calif. Copper Rules
AT&T wants the agency to grant preemption and allow it to discontinue copper service in the state
WASHINGTON, July 23, 2026 – More than two dozen Democratic lawmakers don’t want the FCC to quash California’s copper retirement regulations.
AT&T is asking the agency to do so, citing a March order in which the FCC said its approval would be enough to rip up copper, regardless of any state rules saying otherwise. The company at the same time sought, and has since received, FCC clearance to discontinue service at 200,000 locations in California.
A group of 28 lawmakers led by Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Calif., the top Democrat on the House Commerce Committee, said AT&T’s replacement landline service wasn’t a full substitute for every household. The service, which primarily runs on the carrier’s wireless network, wouldn’t work in dead zones or during cell and power outages, they argued.
“There is no remediation possible for loss of life,” they wrote. “Unlike copper lines, wireless infrastructure depends on electrical grids and cellular towers that are highly vulnerable to destruction during natural disasters.”
In AT&T’s preemption petition, it said its landline replacement had 24 hours of backup power in case of an outage.
The California Public Utilities Commission has stricter copper retirement standards than the FCC, and is less likely to consider wireless service a full replacement for landlines in rural areas. Major ISPs are eager to transition customers to other technologies, as copper doesn’t provide competitive broadband service and is expensive to maintain.
The FCC is sympathetic to that effort, saying in a March order that ISPs should ask the agency to preempt state rules that got in the way of an approved copper retirement order. The agency has since approved AT&T’s request to discontinue service from 360 wire centers in California starting June 2027, that’s 60 percent of the company’s wire centers in the state.
AT&T, along with Verizon and broadband trade group USTelecom, wants the FCC to take the next step and strike down California’s rule, the company said in reply comments posted Wednesday.
“The Commission has now explicitly authorized AT&T to discontinue POTS to existing customers throughout 360 California wire centers,” AT&T wrote. “The CPUC would prefer that it, not the Commission, gets the final word on that question. It does not.”
AT&T said it can provide its alternative service, called Phone–Advanced, over wireless (from any provider) or fiber. But the CPUC doesn’t consider wireless service or coverage adequate to replace a copper wire, and using fiber actually requires some legacy switching gear to stay online, defeating the purpose of saving cash by turning off old infrastructure.
The company also says wireless coverage is present at all the locations at issue, something the CPUC has said isn’t definitively documented.
The CPUC and advocacy groups in the state are pushing the FCC not to preempt the state’s rules.
“It is clear that AT&T’s primary purpose for filing its Petition is to override the CPUC’s denial of AT&T’s application to relinquish its [carrier of last resort] obligations — and, ultimately, to stop providing service in unprofitable parts of the state — rather than a good-faith effort to ease regulatory burdens,” the agency wrote.
The state did deny AT&T’s bid to drop its obligations to maintain copper in rural areas. When the company asked the FCC to preempt the CPUC’s rules, it also sued the CPUC in federal court to overturn that refusal.
The CPUC is also suing the FCC. The state is arguing the federal agency overstepped its authority by declaring state rules preempted.
During AT&T’s earnings call Wednesday, executives said the company had FCC approval to discontinue legacy services at more than 30 percent of its more than 5,000 copper wire centers, and approval to stop selling legacy services to new customers at 85 percent.
The discontinuance will become effective in late 2026. AT&T is trying to retire much of its copper, which it says it spends $6 billion annually maintaining, by the end of 2029.
Verizon also filed a large copper retirement request at the FCC this month to retire copper covering 4.5 million locations, but serving 140,000.
