ISP Executives See Copper Retirement as an Industry Priority

USTelecom CEO Jonathan Spalter compared a mandate that carriers maintain legacy copper to a requirement that people watch movies using Betamax technology or listen to music on 8-track tapes. Copper lines rely on “century-old technologies in many cases.”

Copper retirement is something “we all feel very strongly about and have been working on for years,” said Rhonda Johnson, AT&T's executive vice president-federal regulatory relations. AT&T and other companies want to invest in “the right services and the infrastructure that is demanded by our customers,” Johnson said: “We cannot continue to maintain and operate two different networks -- in some cases, more than that.”

Legacy networks “served us very well, but now it’s all about fiber,” Johnson said. “The rules and regulations need to change.”

CEO Harold Zeitz said that at Ziply Fiber, “we have switches that are older than I am, that sometimes, when they fail, cannot be resurrected,” adding that it's “actually not good for the customer.” All ISPs face problems with copper theft, and it takes “sometimes days or longer” to repair the lines, he said.

Zeitz said providers need to better articulate why replacing copper is good for customers. “It’s not a service to our customers for them to use something that’s dying.” There are no replacement switches or other equipment available to replace legacy lines, and the people who know how to do the repairs “are retired or gone,” he said. ISPs also have limited budgets, and money spent on copper can’t be used to buy fiber, he noted.

Lumen is investing heavily in its network “to support the backbone for the AI economy, for cloud,” said Melissa Mann, the company's senior vice president-public policy and government affairs. Diverting money away from investments in technologies needed for the U.S. to compete internationally “becomes a matter of national security.”

Brightspeed Chief Legal Officer Steve Tugentman said fewer than 8% of consumers nationally are still using copper lines for voice communications. Putting money into “that small of a population … doesn’t lead to progress, doesn’t make sense.”

BEAD Concerns

Jason Williams, CEO of Montana’s Blackfoot Communications, warned that the BEAD program has been “delayed and weighed down by political edicts far removed from the mechanics of speeding broadband where we need it most.” Executives disagreed on the extent to which BEAD rules should be changed or allowed to proceed as is on a state-by-state basis.

ISPs in Montana were ready to deploy broadband, but BEAD “has come to a screeching halt,” Williams said. Delays in permitting reform are also slowing deployment, he said.

“Reliable broadband level-sets,” Williams said. “It makes the promise that, no matter where you live, you can access the world.” Where feasible, “this means fiber,” he said. “There is no question that fiber is the fastest, most reliable and most scalable form of broadband connectivity.” It also powers mobile wireless networks, he added.

While fiber costs more up front, the operating costs are lower than other forms of broadband, Williams said. In the long term, “fiber is the most efficient” and will last decades.

“It has just sort of been a long, strange trip we’ve been on” with BEAD, said Jeff England, CFO of Silver Star Communications, which operates in Wyoming and Idaho. “We’re a few years into the program, and now it’s likely that we’re going to see some changes.”

The states should be left alone to decide what technologies they will allow, as well as spending limits and the priorities for BEAD, said Jake Baldwin, CEO of the MBO/Cross Family of Companies, based in Oklahoma. The states are “closest to the ground.” He said permitting and environmental reviews have also meant “big” delays for his ISP.

States should be able to decide what’s best for them, agreed Kristi Westbrock, CEO of Minnesota’s Consolidated Telephone Co. The main areas left to be served are the hardest to reach, and new BEAD spending caps would be “detrimental” for Minnesota, she said.

On permitting, Westbrook said her ISP has been working on one federally funded project for six years. “We just finally got through all the approvals that we needed,” she said. “That’s just simply too long to let folks wait.” Moving decisions to the federal level will only slow BEAD deployments, she added.

Changing BEAD wouldn’t be difficult in Texas, which is behind other states, said Jennifer Prather, CEO of that state's Totelcom.