FCC Cutting Red Tape to Unleash New Infrastructure Investments

The FCC announced that it is taking an initial set of actions that will help accelerate the transition from aging copper lines to modern network infrastructure in communities all across the country.  These actions will help ensure that providers roll out upgraded, high-speed networks to more Americans on a faster timeline—rather than requiring providers to keep pouring resources into maintaining decades-old and increasingly expensive copper line networks.

While encouraging copper retirement, the FCC is keeping consumer protections in place, including requiring interoperability and guarding against price hikes by ensuring that consumers transitioning to new networks get access to services at similar or lower price points.

“Outdated FCC rules have left Americans sitting in the slow lane for far too long,” FCC Chairman Brendan Carr stated.  “Those FCC rules have forced providers to pour resources into maintaining aging and expensive copper line networks instead of investing in the modern, high-speed infrastructure that Americans want and deserve.  We are doing something about that today.  We are streamlining the process for retiring decades-old copper networks so that providers can transition consumers and their resources to new, high-speed networks on a faster timeline.  We do so by clearing some of the regulatory underbrush that needlessly delays the retirement of those copper networks.

“There is much more work ahead for the FCC, and our goal through additional actions is to ultimately free up billions of dollars for new networks that otherwise would have been diverted into costly and outdated copper lines.  This initial set of actions gets things moving in the right direction and creates the right incentives for providers to invest and build new networks in communities across the country.  As we take these actions, we are also ensuring that consumers remain protected during the transition.”

The Wireline Competition Bureau takes the following actions through its orders: