“However, carriers will retain the flexibility to retire their copper networks in favor of fiber without prior Commission approval-as long as no service is discontinued, reduced, or impaired”, the commission said in its announcement. A shift to fiber shouldn’t relieve carriers of their responsibilities to customers, he said. “Changing technology is not a rationale for stifling service or competition”, he said. Fiber-based networks are significantly more reliable than copper networks and offer the potential for new services, he said. “But it does not bring the opportunity to walk away from the responsibilities that govern the relationship between those who build and those who use the facilities”.
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At the same time, these carriers also maintain that the requests by competitive providers like XO to ask for an extended period of notification of copper retirement will delay their deployment of fiber.
That trend is certain to continue, raising the question of what to do about service that remains dependent on the vast copper-based infrastructure that supported the conventional phone system for more than a century.
Phone companies must also offer consumers the option to buy back-up battery power for landline phones that run on the new fiber optic networks.
The rules will maintain competition and consumer protection standards, said a statement from Chip Pickering, CEO of Comptel communications advocacy group. So under the new rules, phone companies will have to offer batteries that last eight hours. Traditional telephone service doesn’t require an outside power source, but VoIP does. In an emergency, a lack of power could prevent Americans from calling for help.
The FCC enacted the backup power requirements without any dissenting votes.
The FCC also started a consultation on how to evaluate and compare the replacement and legacy services.
Smaller carriers sometimes buy network access from incumbents in order to serve small businesses, schools, libraries, health care facilities, and government offices, the FCC noted.
In addition, the FCC rules will require telecom carriers providing so-called special access services, the middle-mile network services used to deliver business broadband and mobile service backhaul, to continue to provide those services at reasonable rates. “Once they are on the fiber network, customers experience more robust service than they do on the legacy copper network”.
That requirement led Commissioner Ajit Pai to accuse his fellow commissioners of micromanaging in a way that will actually slow down the transition to an all-IP network, a charge which FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler dismissed.
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“Verizon is providing customers the same service that they have today at the same rates, terms, and conditions”.
