Last updated · Written for practice managers and office administrators.
FCC copper retirement rules govern how a carrier announces the removal of copper lines, not whether it may. Under 47 CFR §§ 51.325–51.335 the carrier gives public notice of the network change; under 47 U.S.C. § 214 and 47 CFR § 63.71 it needs FCC authorization and written customer notice before ending the service. Your number survives both; the analog line does not.
What “copper retirement” means in the rules
47 CFR § 51.325(a)(3) defines copper retirement as “the removal or disabling of copper loops, subloops, or the feeder portion of such loops or subloops,” or “the replacement of such loops with fiber-to-the-home loops or fiber-to-the-curb loops.” It is classed as a network change: something an incumbent local exchange carrier must announce publicly because it affects other carriers that connect to its network. The rule is written for carriers talking to carriers. The customer is affected by the consequence, not addressed by the notice.
The network-change notice rules, section by section
| Rule | What it requires |
|---|---|
| § 51.325 — Public notice requirement | An incumbent LEC must give public notice of any network change that affects a competing provider’s ability to serve, affects interoperability, or results in a copper retirement. |
| § 51.327 — Content of notice | At minimum: the carrier’s name and address, a contact person, the implementation date, the locations, a description of the changes, and the reasonably foreseeable impact. |
| § 51.329 — Methods for providing notice | File a public notice with the FCC, or publish through industry fora, publications or the carrier’s website and file a certification with the FCC. The notice must stay available and be kept accurate until the change is implemented. Filings go through ECFS with prescribed titles such as “Public Notice of Copper Retirement Under Rule 51.333.” |
| § 51.331 — Timing of notice | Public notice at the “make/buy point” and at least twelve months before implementation, or at least six months if the change can be implemented within twelve months of that point; changes implementable within six months may use the short-term procedure in § 51.333. |
| § 51.333 — Short-term notice and copper retirement notices | Requires a certificate of service showing the notice was served on directly interconnecting carriers at least five business days before filing. A copper retirement notice is deemed final on the 90th day after the FCC releases its public notice of the filing (15th day where the copper serves no customers), unless an objection is filed; in no case may an incumbent LEC give less than 90 days’ notice of a copper retirement that serves customers. |
| § 51.335 — Confidential or proprietary information | Procedures for handling confidential details in a network-change notice. |
The eCFR entries for §§ 51.329, 51.333 and 63.71 carry a note linking to amendments published April 20, 2026 (91 FR 20936 and 20938). We summarize the text as currently codified; read the live eCFR page before relying on a specific interval, and expect the rules to move toward shorter transitions rather than longer ones.
Copper retirement vs Section 214 discontinuance
These are two different legal events, and the one that affects a customer directly is the second.
| Copper retirement (Part 51) | Service discontinuance (Section 214, Part 63) | |
|---|---|---|
| What changes | The physical copper is removed or replaced with fiber. | A retail service (for example business POTS or a carrier VoIP product) stops being offered. |
| Who is notified | Interconnecting carriers and the public, via the FCC or the carrier’s website. | Each affected customer, in writing (email counts), plus the state commission, the Governor and others listed in § 63.71(a). |
| What the notice must say | Carrier, contact, date, locations, description, foreseeable impact (§ 51.327). | Carrier name and address, planned date, geographic areas, type of service, and how to object to the FCC (§ 63.71(a)). |
| Approval | Deemed final after the objection period unless an objection succeeds. | Requires FCC authorization; the application is granted automatically after a set period unless the FCC removes it from streamlined treatment. |
| Examples on the record | Carrier network-disclosure pages (AT&T’s are at clec.att.com). | FCC DA 26-459 (AT&T POTS, 39 wire centers, on or after July 14, 2026); FCC DA 25-1042 (AT&T Phone for Business and Remote Call Forwarding, 19 states, on or after November 15, 2026). |
A carrier can retire copper without discontinuing your service: it moves you to fiber or another replacement and the service continues under the same name. It can also discontinue the service outright, which is what the AT&T filings above do. The AT&T page shows how to read a discontinuance public notice and find your wire center in its appendix.
What a customer notice means
If you have received a letter or email from your carrier naming a date and a service, it is almost certainly a § 63.71 discontinuance notice, and the date is the earliest day the carrier may stop the service. Three things are worth knowing:
- The date is a floor, not a promise. FCC public notices state an authorized date “on or after” which the carrier may act. The carrier chooses the actual day.
- You can comment, but the window is short. The notice must tell you how to file comments with the FCC. Objections rarely stop a technology transition; they can delay it.
- The replacement offered may not suit a fax line. The rules require disclosure of certain limitations of a replacement service, but whether fax works on it is a product question. Ask in writing.
Timeline expectations, without invented numbers
The rules give you procedural minimums: a copper retirement notice cannot be final in under 90 days when the copper serves customers, and a discontinuance application has a comment window before it is granted. What the rules do not give you is a guaranteed gap between the letter in your hand and the shut-off. On the AT&T filings currently on the record the gap between the FCC public notice and the authorized date ranged from a few months to about a year, and carriers have announced multi-year programs to move off copper entirely. Plan to have the fax number moved before the date in your notice, with room for one rejected port request, rather than counting on a grace period.
What to do with the fax line
- Confirm which service the fax number is on. The POTS line definition decodes the bill vocabulary.
- Check portability while the line is active. Numbers port routinely while service is live. After disconnection, release is the carrier’s decision, and under 47 CFR § 52.15 a disconnected business number can be reassigned after 45 to 365 days.
- Pick the replacement. The POTS line replacement guide compares a cellular gateway, a VoIP adapter and an online fax service; fax over VoIP explains why the adapter route is the fragile one.
- Port, test, then cancel. usfax.com ports numbers in at no charge from us on every plan ($19, $29 or $59 a month, no contract, 7-day trial, cancel online; see pricing). The steps are in Keep your number.