

In this Thursday, Dec. 12, 2013, file photo, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Tom Wheeler testifies during a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, before the House Energy and Commerce Committee. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)

America's top telecom companies are eager to end support for their aging copper phone networks in favor of next-gen fiber optic cables that are much more profitable and come with fewer regulatory strings attached. But the nation's top telecom regulator has a message for them: Not so fast.

"It’s easy to say that old-fashioned, all-copper networks are obsolete," said Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler at a telecommunications conference Monday. But, he added, recent advances in copper-based broadband technology mean it's too soon to kill off copper for good. "Our goal should be to improve our copper retirement process to strengthen our core values, including competition," he said.

There are a number of other reasons why telecom companies are interested in fiber. Consumer demand for fiber has been increasing at copper's expense. And because there are fewer existing regulations applying to fiber, the companies also see an opportunity to expand without the usual level of FCC oversight. But federal officials still require providers to invest in copper despite the declining usage, in part because copper is still what supports networks in many low-income and rural areas.

Firms, such as AT&T, have begun trial-testing a switch to fiber in those regions to determine if the process will produce disruptions in service to seniors and rural Americans. AT&T's tests involve one experiment in a senior citizens center and one rural experiment. The tests are motivated by officials' concerns that call quality, 911 emergency response and access to phone services in general could suffer if the switch takes place too hastily.

On Monday, Wheeler said he would introduce measures to make sure the nation's copper infrastructure is phased out responsibly — part of a series of principles aimed at keeping incumbent phone companies from trampling over smaller, competitive carriers in the dash toward greener fiber pastures. One question the FCC will ask is whether incumbent carriers should sell their copper to the competitive carriers rather than simply leaving the technology by the wayside. The agency will also explore what maintenance requirements, if any, should be imposed on copper cabling that does not get retired.

These and other moves, according to Wheeler, will limit the opportunity for incumbents to gain too much of an advantage over smaller companies.

Wheeler repeated his now familiar slogan: "competition, competition, competition." Industry officials have said the slogan has been met with few specifics from Wheeler — but the new efforts may be a sign of change, according to Gene Kimmelman, chief executive of the consumer group Public Knowledge.

"This is much more specific than anything I've heard on this," said Kimmelman. "It's meat on the bones."