FCC removes requirement for analogue voice-grade, copper loop unbundling

If your wondering why its getting harder to get that POTS (Plain Old Telephone System) landline to your business or residence. Then here is why.

"Recognizing sweeping changes over the past two decades in the market for voice telephone service, the Federal Communications Commission issued an Order today granting certain local phone companies relief from two 1996-era regulatory obligations that no longer serve their intended purpose.

Specifically, the FCC granted certain legacy telephone companies (called price cap incumbent local exchange carriers (LEC)) relief from outdated and burdensome requirements from the Telecommunications Act of 1996 designed to foster competition in the market for local telephone service—(1) a requirement they offer competitors “analog voice-grade copper loops” on an unbundled basis at regulated rates and (2) a requirement they offer legacy services for resale at regulated rates. The communications marketplace has transformed over the past twenty years, with consumers migrating away from plain old telephone service provided over copper wires by their local telephone company toward newer, any-distance voice services provided over next-generation networks by cable, mobile and fixed wireless, and over-the-top VoIP providers. In fact, according to the FCC’s latest published data, of the nearly 455 million active voice subscriptions in the United States, only 55.8 million were provided by incumbent LECs.

Rather than providing a foothold for new entrants into the voice marketplace, these decades-old requirements have become a vice, trapping incumbent LECs into preserving and prolonging dependence on outdated technologies and services and artificially delaying the migration to next-generation networks and services that benefit American consumers and businesses. The Order therefore relieves incumbent LECs of these requirements and, in turn, eliminates costly mandates that deter investment by incumbent LECs and competitive LECs alike and accelerates the transition to next-generation networks and services.

To enable competitive LECs and their customers to make alternative voice service arrangements following forbearance, today’s Order provides a three-year transition period. The Order also provides a five-year transition period for Puerto Rico to account for the devastation to communications infrastructure in that territory from the 2017 hurricanes.

The Order does not forbear from unbundling obligations enabling the provision of broadband services. On July 1, USTelecom withdrew its remaining requests for forbearance from those obligations.

This Order is the Commission’s third action on USTelecom’s forbearance petition. In April 2019, the Commission unanimously granted relief from other unnecessary 1996-era regulations, including the requirement that small, rural carriers set up separate affiliates to provide-in-region long distance service and the requirement that incumbent LECs submit reports about their legacy special access services. And in July 2019, the Commission unanimously granted partial relief from requirements that price cap incumbent LECs provide their competitors with legacy transport facilities—known as DS1 and DS3 transport—on an unbundled basis at regulated rates."

Source: https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/FCC-19-119A1.pdf

Prior to enactment of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 (the 1996 Act),1 local

telephone companies (known as incumbent local exchange carriers or incumbent LECs) held a monopoly

1 The Telecommunications Act of 1996, Pub. L. No. 104-104, 110 Stat. 56, amending the Communications Act of

1934 (the Act) (codified at 47 U.S.C. § 151 et seq.).

Federal Communications Commission FCC 19-119

2

on local telephone service.2 Congress passed the 1996 Act to open these local markets to competition and

required incumbent LECs to (1) unbundle and open their networks to competitors at cost-based rates, and

(2) offer for resale at wholesale rates telecommunications services that the incumbent LEC offers at

retail.3 At the same time that it established these local market-opening provisions, Congress also left it to

the Commission to determine which network elements should be subject to unbundling obligations,4 and

gave the Commission the authority to forbear from these and other regulatory obligations if they became

no longer necessary in light of changes in the industry.5

2. Over the last 23 years, the communications landscape has dramatically transformed, with

both the voice and broadband marketplaces replete with competition from a multitude of providers using

a variety of technologies and offering communications capabilities and services unforeseen in 1996.

These substantial marketplace changes warrant reexamination of the Commission’s unbundling and resale

rules to ensure how best to further the goals of the 1996 Act in a modern era.

3. Earlier this year, we granted incumbent LECs relief from certain unbundling and resale

requirements that no longer served the public interest and were unnecessary to protect consumers.6 We

now seek comment on proposals to update incumbent LECs’ remaining unbundling and resale obligations

to reflect the marketplace realities of intermodal voice and broadband competition. We make these

proposals consistent with our continuing efforts to remove unnecessary regulatory burdens that can inhibit

the deployment of, and transition to, next-generation networks and services that benefit American

consumers and businesses. At the same time, recognizing that unbundling requirements may have

continued benefits in promoting broadband access to consumers where facilities-based competition is less

likely to occur, we propose to maintain rules regarding mass market broadband-capable loops in rural

areas.