[1st-mile-nm] Fwd: The Beginning of the End for Copper

[Drew Einhorn]

Hi,

I worry about the FCC's decision on net neutrality. But, as a rural
customer, I find this much more worrisome.

In my neighborhood, lobo.net is providing a much-needed alternative to
CenturyLink. But, other neighborhoods are not so fortunate.

If Verizon and AT&T are successful in shedding their rural customers, I
doubt it will take CenturyLink long to follow their example.

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: POTs and PANs <comment-reply at wordpress.com>
Date: Mon, Nov 20, 2017 at 5:16 AM
Subject: [New post] The Beginning of the End for Copper
To: <drew.einhorn at gmail.com>


CCGConsulting posted: "The FCC voted last Thursday to relax the rules for
retiring copper wiring. This change was specifically aimed at Verizon and
AT&T and is going to make it a lot easier for them to tear down old copper
wiring. The change eliminates some of the notifi"
Respond to this post by replying above this line
New post on *POTs and PANs*
<http://potsandpansbyccg.com/author/ccgcomm/> The Beginning of the End for
Copper
<http://potsandpansbyccg.com/2017/11/20/the-beginning-of-the-end-for-copper/>
by
CCGConsulting <http://potsandpansbyccg.com/author/ccgcomm/>

<http://potsandpansbyccg.com/2016/02/08/what-happens-to-unused-caf-ii-funds/copper-cable/#main>The
FCC voted last Thursday to relax the rules for retiring copper wiring. This
change was specifically aimed at Verizon and AT&T and is going to make it a
lot easier for them to tear down old copper wiring.

The change eliminates some of the notification process to customers and
also allows the telcos to eliminate old copper wholesale services like
resale. But the big consequence of this change is that many customers will
lose voice services. This change reverses rules put in place in 2014 that
required that the telcos replace copper with service that is functionally
as good as the copper facilities that are being removed.

Consider what this change will mean. If the telcos tear down copper in
towns then customers will lose the option to buy DSL. While cable modems
have clobbered DSL in the market there are still between 15% and 25% of
broadband customers on DSL in most markets. DSL, while slower, also offers
lower cost broadband options which many customers find attractive.

I don’t envision AT&T and Verizon tearing down huge amounts of copper in
towns immediately. But there are plenty of neighborhoods where the copper
is dreadful and the telcos can now walk away from that copper without
offering an alternative to customers. This will give the cable companies a
true monopoly in towns or neighborhoods where the copper is removed.
Customers losing low-cost DSL will face a price increase if they want to
keep broadband.

The rural areas are a different story. In most of rural America the copper
network is used to deliver telephone service and there are still a lot of
rural customers buying telephone service. You might think that people can
just change to cellular service if they lose their landlines, but it’s not
that simple. There are still plenty of rural places that have copper
telephone service where there is no good cellular service. And there are a
lot more places where the cellular service is too weak to work indoors and
customers need to go outside to find the cellular sweet spots (something we
all remember doing in airports a decade ago).

Of a bigger concern in rural areas will be losing access to 911. A lot of
homes still keep landlines just for the 911 capabilities. Under the old
rules the carriers had to demonstrate that customers would still have
access to reliable 911, but it seems the carriers can now walk away without
worrying about this.

The FCC seems to have accepted the big telcos arguments completely. For
instance, Chairman Pai cited a big telco argument that carriers could save
$40 to $50 per home per year by eliminating copper. That may be a real
number, but the revenue from somebody buying voice service on copper is far
greater than the savings. It seems clear that the big telcos want to
eliminate what’s left of their rural work force and get out of the
residential business.

This is a change that has been inevitable for years. The copper networks
are deteriorating due to age and due even more to neglect. But the last FCC
rules forced the telcos to work to find an alternative to copper for
customers. Since AT&T and Verizon are cellular companies this largely meant
guaranteeing adequate access to cellular service – and that meant beefing
up the rural cellular networks where there aren’t a lot of customers. But
without the functional equivalency requirement it’s unlikely that the
carriers will beef up cellular service in the most remote rural places. And
that means that many homes will go dark for voice.

This same ruling applies to other telcos, but I don’t think there will be
any rush to tear down copper in the same manner as AT&T and Verizon. Telcos
like Frontier and Windstream still rely heavily on their copper networks
and don’t have a cellular product to replace landlines. And I don’t know
any smaller telcos that would walk away from customers without first
providing an alternative service.

It’s hard to think that the FCC is embracing a policy that will leave some
households with no voice option. The FCC is purposefully turning a blind
eye to the issue, but anybody who knows rural America knows this will
happen. There are still a lot of rural places where copper is the only
communications option today. Our regulators once prided themselves on the
fact that we brought telephone service to every place that had electricity.
We had a communications network that was the envy of the world, and
connecting everybody was a huge boon to the economy. We could still keep
those same universal service policies for cellular service if we had the
will to do so. But this FCC clearly sides with the big carriers over the
public and they are not going to impose any rules that the big telcos and
cable companies don’t want.
*CCGConsulting <http://potsandpansbyccg.com/author/ccgcomm/>* | November
20, 2017 at 7:15 am | Tags: DSL <http://potsandpansbyccg.com/tag/dsl/>, FCC
<http://potsandpansbyccg.com/tag/fcc/>, retiring copper
<http://potsandpansbyccg.com/tag/retiring-copper/>, rural 911
<http://potsandpansbyccg.com/tag/rural-911/> | Categories: Regulation -
What is it Good For?
<http://potsandpansbyccg.com/category/regulation-what-is-it-good-for/> |
URL: https://wp.me/p3kUkt-1DJ

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