Commenters Say FCC Can't Abandon Communications Act Responsibilities
Public Knowledge (PK) and the Communications Workers of America (CWA) warned that the FCC would violate the Communications Act if it abandons universal service in favor of speeding copper retirement. In a joint filing posted Tuesday, the groups reminded the FCC that in the Improving Rural Call Quality and Reliability Act of 2017, Congress found that “maintaining quality voice service to rural America remains essential even in the Internet Age.”
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More than 120 comments were filed this week in docket 25-208 as the FCC looks at ways to speed replacement of legacy copper lines (see 2509300039).
“The Commission must not abandon its central purpose, ensuring that all Americans remain connected to voice service, which continues to be the most important way to communicate with emergency services, and the primary means of communication for many elderly Americans, rural Americans, and other vulnerable populations,” PK and CWA said. While Congress intended the Telecom Act of 1996 “'to encourage the rapid deployment of new telecommunications technologies,’ it did not intend for the Commission to sacrifice the principles of universal access to achieve this.”
PK and CWA cited information from the Pew Research Center, which found last year that 80% of households maintain a wireline broadband connection. “This demonstrates that the vast majority of Americans view wireless and wireline as complementary technologies," they said. "The Commission should recognize that Americans are not prepared to give up their wired connection to the world.”
Dozens of people who say they suffer health effects from electromagnetic radiation and can’t safely use wireless technologies also weighed in, arguing that they depend on legacy copper lines to communicate. “By eliminating copper landlines, the Commission would be removing the very lifeline that the Commission was created to maintain,” they said. Removing copper landlines would also “endanger the lives of Americans because there is no adequate or reliable substitute in the event of an electrical or cellular outage.”
The National Emergency Number Association said it understands “the long-term value” of retiring legacy time-division multiplexing (TDM) infrastructure in the U.S., but regulators must protect legacy 911 services during the move to next-generation 911. “Communities nationwide should not lose access to critical 9-1-1 emergency services because of TDM retirement.”
In addition, NENA said it spoke with service providers and 911 authorities “about the extraordinary costs in maintaining legacy systems as TDM service is being decommissioned.” These costs are either passed onto 911 authorities and call centers “or to other subcontractors that are part of the call flow,” the group said. “This has led to price increases borne to 9-1-1 entities that are increasingly cost prohibitive. Furthermore, with fewer vendors servicing these systems, there is an increasingly less competitive market.”
WTA said its members, which typically serve fewer than 5,000 customers per service area, support the FCC's proposed changes. That includes a plan “to codify” waivers “so that notices of network changes would no longer be required to be filed with the Commission,” the group said. “Posting the information on the service provider’s website, and providing notice directly to any interconnected local exchange providers should suffice.”
Discontinuance of service obligations imposed on incumbent local exchange carriers (ILECs) are “a vestige of a time when the ILECs were dominant and had ‘Carrier of Last Resort' obligations imposed upon them,” WTA said. “But given the plethora of other technologies that can now provide voice (and data) services, it no longer makes sense to impose a slow and costly process on the ILECs to allow them to discontinue outmoded service.”
Incompas said in a news release Wednesday that the transition away from copper can’t come at the expense of consumers or public safety. While the group "supports eliminating unnecessary discontinuance requirements for resellers when their wholesale provider has already discontinued a legacy service and removing customer notice requirements for grandfathered services, the association strongly opposes eliminating interconnection protections without a clear IP interconnection framework that ensures copper retirement only proceeds where viable wholesale replacements exist,” said Christopher Shipley, executive director of public policy.