AT&T Asks to Discontinue Service on Damaged, Vandalized Copper Lines
Copper | 2026-06-24 00:50:16
AT&T has also sued state regulators over rules that require it to maintain copper wire telephone service for new customers.
By Paul Ploumis
SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): AT&T asked federal regulators Thursday to approve a set of service discontinuances tied to damage across portions of its copper network.
The 500-page filing to the Federal Communications Commission details more than 500 outages in May 2026 alone. AT&T says outages caused by factors such as equipment failure and copper theft have made restoration impractical and uneconomic, and that it does not intend to repair the affected facilities.
“AT&T does not intend to restore service to the impacted areas, because comparable substitute service is available to all impacted customers,” the filing, submitted by AT&T attorney Brett Farley, states.
“It does not make economic sense or serve the public interest for AT&T to spend its time and money to restore a portion of its legacy network serving relatively few customers in these areas, particularly when AT&T plans to retire the vast majority of its legacy copper network.”
“In each instance, whether the outage was caused by copper theft, equipment failure, or some other unexpected impairment of AT&T’s facilities, the discontinuance of service was beyond AT&T’s control.”
The filing comes as AT&T seeks to further unwind its obligations tied to its copper network, including seeking relief from carrier-of-last-resort requirements in parts of California that currently require the company to provide basic landline service.
AT&T has also sued state regulators over rules that require it to maintain copper wire telephone service for new customers.
AT&T officials told FCC staff that network vandalism and copper theft continue to affect customers on legacy networks. In California alone, the company experienced over 4,000 outages as a result of copper theft in 2025 and has experienced approximately 2,000 outages so far in 2026, according to officials.
Individual stakeholders have pushed back on AT&T’s claims that “almost no one uses” its landline service, arguing it is a critical lifeline in many regions of California with limited mobile reception.
The company recently reported copper theft was down significantly in Louisville, Kentucky, following a partnership with law enforcement.
Courtesy: www.broadbandbreakfast.com
