CenturyLink has asked the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for permission to retire copper in areas of Minnesota and Nebraska. This is happening everywhere. There are articles on the internet of other telephone providers filing with the fCC to get out of copper.
There are articles on line about retiring copper and getting out of the business of supplying dial tone.
It’s coming. The business world of the telrphone company of yesterday is gone. Either adapt or get out.
They caused their own outage purposely so that when they get hit with a huge fine by the FCC in the hundreds of millions they can claim they can't pay it, file bankrupcy and claim the only way they can stay in business is to shed the copper and become a fiber only company. It's not hard to figure out.
We have/had a lot of 911 centers with our equipment. They were already bailing before the outage. With this PR nightmare watch for more to bail. Only a matter of time till CTL stops installing/maintaining 911 equipment too, due to liability anyway. It is no secret Jeff and Freddie hate the maint contracts at the 911 centers and want rid of them. Soon to be nothing more than a fiber transport provider with contractor techs to install and maintain. Just watch and see.
They are a RBOC, they provide primary service to a Region, Just like Centurylink, L3 is going to find you just can't tell the Government, Emergency services, City's and States your not going to do something.
Also, having 3 major outages over the Holiday's over the Fiber Network for 911, Internet, and other services is not going to be dismissed easily.
That is why they still want Copper.
That's only in areas where there is fiber in place to provide dial tone thus not abandoning the customer!
2020 end of regulated..