California Says AT&T Lied to FCC About Copper Landlines

California accused AT&T of lying to the FCC about state law in the June 15 FCC filing opposing the carrier’s plan to retire copper landline service. The filing targets AT&T’s applications to discontinue residential and business local service across 360 California wire centers, covering roughly 199,000 customers, with a proposed cutoff of June 1, 2027. AT&T also asked the agency to preempt California’s Carrier of Last Resort rules, the obligation to serve any potential landline customer in its footprint.

The state and the CPUC want the FCC to reject AT&T’s applications or pull them from a streamlined review, arguing that AT&T’s chosen wireless replacement, its LTE-based AT&T Phone-Advanced service, fails the FCC’s own Adequate Replacement Test on indoor coverage, 911 reliability, price, and Lifeline compatibility. AT&T says it spends $1 billion a year maintaining copper in California and has secured COLR relief in 20 of the other 21 states in its wireline footprint. California is the lone holdout.

California’s Filing and What It Calls a Lie

“AT&T asserts that California seeks to prohibit or hinder wireline carriers from discontinuing copper facilities and investing in fiber,” the state’s filing said. “Indeed, AT&T has been making this argument for years. It is not and has never been true.” AT&T told the FCC in its petition that “in California, the aging, fragile, and expensive copper lines are still there, frozen in time by California regulations enacted by prior generations for the benefit of prior generations.” In a separate filing, AT&T said “California requires AT&T to continue offering POTS [Plain Old Telephone Service] throughout its territory.” California pointed to a 2008 CPUC decision that explicitly refused to adopt rules that would freeze copper in place because doing so would “discourage and delay fiber systems from being built in California.”

California is the only state AT&T still has to convince. AT&T said it has secured Carrier of Last Resort relief from 20 of the 21 states in its wireline footprint, and the CPUC rejected AT&T’s COLR request in a 4-0 vote in June 2024 after more than 5,000 public comments opposed the carrier’s cellular-replacement plan. The two FCC dockets at issue, WC Docket No. 26-121 for residential service and WC Docket No. 26-120 for business lines, were both accepted by the FCC in its May 22 discontinuance Public Notice. The FCC’s Wireline Competition Bureau on June 16 granted in part CPUC’s motion to extend the public comment period on AT&T’s separate federal preemption petition. Both filings, the state filing and AT&T’s preemption petition, are tracked on the CPUC’s federal filings page for AT&T’s California landline case.

Why Wireless Isn’t an Adequate Replacement

AT&T’s chosen wireless replacement, its AT&T Phone-Advanced (AP-A) wireless home phone service, fails the FCC’s own Adequate Replacement Test. AP-A is a VoIP product that runs over AT&T’s LTE mobile network, and AT&T’s discontinuance filings rely principally on the assumption that affected households are already covered by a “facilities-based mobile wireless” provider. “AT&T has not shown, however, that the indoor mobile voice coverage in the affected areas, as opposed to the outdoor coverage, is sufficient to render wireless service an adequate substitute for AT&T’s wireline residential and business services,” California told the FCC.

California’s filing dismantled the maps AT&T submitted as proof. The FCC’s National Broadband Map “displays broadband, not voice, coverage,” California said. The FCC’s Mobile LTE Coverage Map depicts the signal a customer can expect “when outdoors and stationary” and is “not meant to reflect where service is available when a user is indoors.” AT&T’s own coverage disclaimer on its website states that the “map displays approximate outdoor coverage. Actual coverage may vary. Coverage isn’t guaranteed and is subject to change without notice.” Buildings and walls can block the signal that outdoor coverage maps show as available. Mobile coverage maps, the state concluded, “cannot reliably determine that a wireless service is an adequate replacement for a wireline service without further proof of indoor coverage.”

Price, backup power, and 911 reliability round out the gap. California warned that AP-A, which depends on a cellular signal or a separate internet connection, would be “considerably more costly than California’s Basic Service” in rural and low-income areas where cellular signal is poor and a separate broadband plan would have to be added. Wireless home phone also fails during commercial power outages without backup batteries the customer has to supply. It is also unclear from AT&T’s applications whether AP-A supports either the California Lifeline discount program for low-income households or the California Relay Service for the deaf and hard of hearing.

California cited the FCC’s own standard for what counts as adequate replacement. The state’s filing laid out what disqualifies a substitute service:

• costs substantially more than the existing service
• requires additional equipment purchases
• depends on additional, customer-supplied broadband
• fails during commercial power outages without customer-supplied backup power
• is incompatible with assistive technologies
• provides inferior indoor coverage
• results in diminished 911 functionality or reliability

The $1 Billion a Year AT&T Wants to Stop Spending

AT&T’s pitch to the FCC is largely financial. In its federal lawsuit filed in the Southern District of California last month, AT&T alleged that “California requires AT&T to spend $1 billion each year to maintain a century-old telephone network that almost no one uses.” Across its footprint, AT&T says it spends $6 billion annually on aging copper gear. AT&T COO Jeff McElfresh told a March Morgan Stanley conference that the carrier had approval to stop selling new copper service at 85 percent of its more than 5,000 wire centers and could begin fully shutting down 30 percent of them, with a target of retiring most of its copper by the end of 2029.

The numbers behind those targets frame the fight. AT&T’s most recent public figures include:

• $1 billion: AT&T’s annual California copper maintenance bill
• $6 billion: AT&T’s national annual copper bill
• about 3 percent: share of California households in AT&T’s territory still on copper
• about 199,000: customers AT&T’s two FCC applications propose to remove from copper
• 85 percent: share of AT&T’s more than 5,000 wire centers approved to stop selling new copper service

AT&T sweetened the case by pledging $19 billion in California fiber expansion by 2030, which it said would reach an extra 4 million homes. Roughly half of AT&T’s wireline territory uses a “wireless first” strategy in which copper is replaced by wireless rather than fiber. The carrier also reported about 2,000 outages tied to copper theft in California this year, blaming people cutting up the lines to sell for scrap.

We want to make sure we’re handing this in a way that is not leaving customers stranded.

Susan Johnson, a senior AT&T executive, made that comment to Light Reading. It is the closest thing in AT&T’s filings to a direct acknowledgment that copper customers need a transition plan. Whether that plan includes Lifeline subsidies, Relay Service compatibility, and indoor 911 reliability is what the FCC will weigh. AT&T has not said publicly whether its $19 billion fiber pledge reaches the affected customers.

The Federal Lever Carr Opened for AT&T

In a March order, the FCC under Chairman Brendan Carr asserted that state rules conflicting with its copper-retirement policy are subject to preemption, opening the door for carriers to ask the agency to override state-level Carrier of Last Resort obligations one case at a time. The order also declared that some local telephone service could be “jurisdictionally mixed” interstate and intrastate service, putting legacy voice under federal authority in ways that had not been the case.

Anna Gomez, the FCC’s lone Democratic commissioner, joined the March order but said her office requested edits to create a docket where rural consumers could complain if carriers turn off copper without proper notice. Public Knowledge, a consumer advocacy group usually aligned with Gomez, said her edits did not go far enough and that the adopted order still “allows phone companies to cut corners in the name of upgrading our nation.” The same procedural lane is playing out in New York, where Verizon is asking the FCC to retire copper service for 86 subscribers across eight states and Washington, D.C., and where the state Public Service Commission has told the agency it likely lacks jurisdiction over legacy local voice. California’s filing pushed in the opposite direction, asking the FCC to reject AT&T’s applications outright.

California’s filing asked the FCC to slow that machine down. “California opposes the applications as presented and respectfully asks the Commission to reject these applications,” the state wrote. “In the alternative, we ask the Wireline Competition Bureau to remove these applications from the streamlined process and ask the Commission to direct AT&T to address the concerns we have raised here.”

California said it could sue the FCC if the agency tries to preempt state rules. AT&T is already suing California in federal court in the Southern District of California over the same Carrier of Last Resort obligations. The two-track push mirrors Verizon’s parallel bid in New York, where the state Public Service Commission told the FCC that some of the services at issue are likely intrastate, putting them outside the agency’s jurisdiction. None of these tracks have produced a final ruling yet.

Where the Affected Customers Sit

AT&T’s two FCC applications cover portions of 360 wire centers across California and break down to about 184,000 residential customers and 15,000 business customers. AT&T proposes to stop providing service to those customers on or after June 1, 2027. About 40,000 AT&T Lifeline subscribers remain in California, the Lifeline program being the state’s primary mechanism for keeping basic phone service affordable for low-income households. The customers most exposed to a wireless-only switch are the ones California’s filing zeroes in on.

AP-A depends on a cellular signal or a separate internet connection, and in rural or low-income areas where signal is weak, a consumer would have to order and pay for a separate internet plan on top of the phone product to make AP-A work. California’s filing said it is unclear whether AP-A supports the California Lifeline discount or the California Relay Service for the deaf and hard of hearing. The state also warned that the FCC’s own adequate-replacement criteria flag diminished 911 functionality as a disqualifier. CPUC’s 2024 denial captured the same worries from the public side in its carrier-of-last-resort proceeding for AT&T, with more than 5,000 public comments opposing AT&T’s cellular-replacement plan.

Commissioner John Reynolds said the June 2024 vote made clear that California would “protect customers’ access to basic telephone service no matter where customers live, their income, or their access to other forms of communication.” Comments in that proceeding cited poor cellular reception, electromagnetic sensitivity, and the need for reliable communication with emergency services, especially in rural fire and flood zones. President Alice Reynolds framed the stakes in those terms.

The COLR rules safeguard telephone service by ensuring Californians have access to at least one telephone company that offers reliable service, access to 911, customer protections, and affordable service through the state’s Lifeline program.

Reynolds made that comment on June 20, 2024, the day the CPUC voted 4-0 to deny AT&T’s request to be relieved of its California Carrier of Last Resort obligations. California’s June 15, 2026 filing pushes the same 911 and Lifeline test from the state docket into the federal one. The Lifeline program has been a particular flashpoint in Carr’s FCC, with the chairman publicly questioning California’s administration of benefits. AT&T reported about 40,000 Lifeline subscribers still on its California network, putting a real bound on how many low-income customers would be exposed.

California’s Three Asks of the FCC

The FCC now has three ways to handle the AT&T petitions: reject them outright, pull them out of the streamlined process for fuller review, or approve them and preempt California rules. California’s filing asks for the first and settles for the second. AT&T is also pursuing the same goal in federal court in the Southern District of California, where its lawsuit targets the CPUC’s refusal to grant COLR relief.

The clock is short. If AT&T’s applications are approved under streamlined procedures, the company could end service to its roughly 199,000 California customers starting June 1, 2027. If the FCC kicks them out of the streamlined process for fuller review, AT&T’s broader goal of shutting down most of its copper by the end of 2029 still runs through the same legal channels. California’s filing warned that whatever the FCC decides, “California could ultimately sue the FCC if the agency tries to preempt the state rules.” CPUC’s June 2024 COLR rejection and the carrier’s separate federal lawsuit show that the fight now sits over which government decides whether 199,000 California households keep a wired line.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why did California say AT&T lied to the FCC?

California’s June 15, 2026 filing with the FCC said AT&T has misrepresented state rules for years, claiming California prohibits replacing copper with fiber when a 2008 CPUC decision explicitly refused to adopt such rules. The state called AT&T’s position ‘not and has never been true.’

What is AT&T Phone-Advanced (AP-A)?

AP-A is AT&T’s wireless home phone service, a VoIP product that runs over AT&T’s LTE mobile network. California told the FCC it is not an adequate replacement for copper landline because its indoor coverage is unverified and it may cost more than basic service in rural or low-income areas.

When could AT&T stop providing copper landline service?

AT&T’s applications propose to end service to about 199,000 California customers on or after June 1, 2027, but only if the FCC approves the discontinuance under its streamlined or full-review process.

Will Lifeline and 911 work on AT&T’s wireless replacement?

California’s filing said it is unclear from AT&T’s applications whether AP-A supports the California Lifeline program for low-income households or the California Relay Service for the deaf and hard of hearing. The state also said diminished 911 reliability is one of the disqualifying conditions in the FCC’s own Adequate Replacement Test.

What does Chairman Carr’s FCC have to do with AT&T’s California bid?

Under Chairman Brendan Carr, the FCC issued a March 2026 order making it easier for carriers to retire copper networks and asserting that conflicting state rules are subject to federal preemption. AT&T is using that framework to ask the FCC to override California’s Carrier of Last Resort rules.