Why Regulators Should Let Copper Networks Sunset
TL;DR
Background: America’s telecommunications landscape has moved from copper-based “plain old telephone service” (POTS) to fiber-optic and wireless networks. Yet the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) still enforces legacy rules—particularly under Sections 214 and 251 of the Communications Act—that require carriers to keep aging copper lines in service.
In recent research, Eric Fruits and Brian Albrecht of the International Center for Law & Economics (ICLE) show these requirements force providers to maintain networks for a small, shrinking subscriber base. As customers leave copper, per-user costs rise, distorting investment and competition.
But… The policy ignores consumers’ revealed preferences. Americans have largely abandoned landlines for mobile and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services. By 2024, about 79% of adults lived in wireless-only households, while fewer than 1% relied exclusively on landlines. Maintaining a parallel, obsolete network acts as a hidden tax on infrastructure investment, diverting capital and skilled labor from expanding fiber and other modern technologies that could help close the digital divide.
Moreover… Keeping copper networks creates a public-safety risk. As the global price of copper climbed toward $6 per pound in early 2026, theft of telecommunications wiring surged. Each incident costs an average of $8,735 to repair and can trigger outages that disrupt 911 systems, hospital communications, and military facilities. By compelling carriers to maintain copper lines, regulators leave a ready supply of valuable metal in the ground—effectively subsidizing organized theft and undermining the public-safety goals the rules aim to advance.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Consumers Have Moved On
The FCC’s most recent “Voice Telephone Services” report shows how quickly the market has changed. From 2014 to 2024, subscribers using switched-access lines fell 77%, from nearly 73 million to just over 16 million. Copper local-loop—or “last-mile”—connections declined even faster, dropping 81% from almost 66 million to about 12.5 million.
Copper’s share of the remaining wireline market also shrank. In 2014, 60% of wireline subscribers relied on copper last-mile connections; by 2024, only 28% did. Over the same period, mobile subscriptions rose from 322 million to 391 million, a 21% increase.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) National Health Interview Survey confirms the consumer response. In 2024, about 79% of adults lived in wireless-only households, while just 0.9% lived in landline-only households.
Copper’s Hidden Costs
Maintaining a legacy network is not just a cost of doing business—it materially drains revenue. AT&T reported spending about $6 billion in 2023—roughly 5% of total revenue—to keep its copper network operating. In California alone, the company spends about $1 billion per year to serve customers who now account for roughly 3% of households in its service territory.
Much of the expense reflects copper’s fragility. Unlike fiber, copper is vulnerable to moisture and corrosion, requiring frequent “truck rolls” (maintenance dispatches) that cost $150 to $500 per visit. Verizon, by contrast, found that migrating customers to fiber cut maintenance dispatches 60%, producing about $180 million in annual operational savings. In 2025, the International Center for Law & Economics (ICLE) filed comments with the FCC noting that these savings could fund next-generation deployment rather than continued “firefighting” of deteriorating 20th-century technology.
Copper’s Energy Penalty
Legacy copper systems use far more energy than modern networks. Transmitting electrical signals over long distances and powering aging central-office equipment requires substantial electricity. Altafiber (formerly Cincinnati Bell) reported that its copper network uses about 172 kWh per subscriber each year, compared with 6 kWh for fiber—a 97% reduction in energy intensity.
AT&T estimates its shift from copper to fiber saved 340,000 megawatt-hours of electricity in 2024 alone. A Ramboll report similarly finds fiber at least 100 times more energy-efficient than copper during operation. Requiring carriers to keep copper networks running conflicts with environmental and net-zero goals, as legacy switches consume eight to 10 times the energy of the servers that replace them.
Obsolete Hardware, Rising Risk
Delayed retirement also means relying on obsolete hardware. Major switching systems, including the Lucent 5ESS and the Nortel DMS-100, have not been manufactured for decades. Nortel filed for bankruptcy in 2009, and Siemens issued “Product Phase Out” notices for its digital switches as early as 2007.
Carriers now scour secondary markets for refurbished parts. In one case, Tinker Air Force Base had to buy replacement switching components on eBay because they were no longer commercially available. Dependence on this gray market creates reliability risks and raises labor costs, as fewer technicians still possess the specialized knowledge needed to maintain legacy equipment.
Let Copper Retire
ICLE’s 202 comments to the FCC urged the agency to use its Section 10 forbearance authority. ICLE asked the commission to waive network-change notice rules under Section 251(c)(5) and service-discontinuance requirements under Section 214 where competitive alternatives exist. The comments argued current rules create unnecessary transaction costs and deadweight loss—economic value destroyed by regulation rather than market failure.
International evidence points the same way. A 2020 WIK-Consult study for the FTTH Council Europe found notice periods of up to five years significantly delayed copper retirement even where fiber was widely available, and recommended shorter timelines where coverage exists. An Accenture analysis for Australia’s government-owned broadband operator projected AU$10.4 billion in cumulative GDP gains from 2026 to 2034 from completing its fiber upgrade.
Fruits and Albrecht note in their ICLE issue brief that remaining copper subscribers—often older and more rural—deserve attention during any transition. The FCC’s proposed framework addresses this through notice and the availability of wireless and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) alternatives. The policy question, the brief explains, is not whether transition costs exist but whether they justify spending billions each year to maintain infrastructure serving a shrinking customer base that is already leaving voluntarily.
For more on this issue, see Eric Fruits and Brian Albrecht’s ICLE issue brief “Paying to Stand Still: Legacy Copper Mandates in a Fiber World” and ICLE’s August 2025 comments to the FCC on “Reducing Barriers to Network Improvements and Service Changes.”