Light Up The Fiber

Remember those old Christmas lights that would go out if a single bulb in the string was dead?  You’d have to go through the entire string, replacing each light to find the culprit (and it was hopeless if more than one bulb had burnt out).  Those stress-inducing strings of lights trace their origins back to the Christmas of 1880, when Thomas Edison hung the first strand of electric lights around his laboratory—just a couple years after the flurry of inventions that led to the first copper long-distance telephone line in the late 1870s.  Well over a century later, it’s safe to say that we’re ready to move on to more modern marvels in both twinkle light and telecom technology.

In an all-IP telecom network, the data necessary for user-friendly features like robocall mitigation and Next-Gen 911 gets passed along seamlessly from one provider to another, protecting consumers from scams and providing life-saving services.  But as soon as the call hits the “dead-bulb” of an old copper line using non-IP technology, all that vital information gets stripped out of the call.

To provide these benefits and faster, more resilient networks, we need to complete the transition to all-IP networks.  The Commission has been working all year on clearing out the regulatory underbrush and giving providers the right incentives to update from outdated technology to new, high-speed, all-IP networks that benefit everyone.

We call this the “IP Transition,” and we’ve been tackling it through several interrelated proceedings.  We started the year by cutting away red tape for service providers seeking permission to upgrade copper lines, with a series of waiver orders to help providers focus on network upgrades, not paperwork.  Now, we have set our sights on fixing the underlying rules that delayed the IP Transition in the first place

First, at the physical infrastructure level, we’re streamlining our rules to make it easier for providers to rip out their old copper lines and replace them with modern, durable fiber optic lines or wireless services that are capable of providing the modern technologies that all Americans deserve.  We proposed a number of changes to our “technology transitions” rules in July to facilitate the replacement of copper with fiber, transforming “plain old telephone service” into modern IP-based calling.

Second, at the network level, we want to correct the incentives that have perpetuated the use of these old, 19th Century technologies.  In October, we proposed to clear out the old rules governing how telecom providers connect to each other’s networks and find a new framework for an all-IP world.  In doing so, we seek to stop forcing certain carriers to maintain costly, outdated copper networks so they can invest in new infrastructure instead.

We’re not stopping there.  The IP Transition involves various moving parts that all have to shift in a coordinated manner—a bit like solving a Rubik’s Cube. We’ll have more details to share on our next steps forward in the new year!