California says AT&T lied to the FCC in trying to lock down old phones

The government is urging the FCC to move slowly

AT&T said it received relief from the Carrier of Last Resort obligation in 20 of the 21 states in its wireline division. Carrier of Last Resort laws require telephone companies to provide landline telephone service to any customer who may be in their territory.

The cost of the CPUC denied AT&T’s request to end its California land mandate in 2024. At the time, the agency encouraged AT&T to upgrade copper lines to fiber rather than shut down older parts of its network.

In addition to its FCC petition, AT&T filed a a case against California last month seeking an injunction that would invalidate California’s Carrier of Last Resort laws. “California requires AT&T to spend $1 billion each year to maintain century-old telephones that no one uses,” AT&T said in its lawsuit.

Litigation could take years, but the FCC may be interested in acting on AT&T’s request quickly. Under the direction of Chairman Brendan Carr, the FCC released system which made it easier for carriers to stop using copper networks and said state regulations should be upheld if they conflict with FCC licenses and authority.

California regulators urged the FCC to tread carefully. If the agency doesn’t reject AT&T’s request outright, it should remove them from the regulatory process that would lead to faster approval, California said. California can file a lawsuit against the FCC if the agency tries to disobey state law.

“California objects to the proposed motion and respectfully requests that the Commission deny the proposed motion,” the state said in a statement. “Instead, we are asking the Wireline Competition Bureau to withdraw these applications from the revised process and ask the Commission to direct AT&T to address the concerns we have raised.”