§ 63.71 Procedures for discontinuance, reduction or impairment of service by domestic carriers.

Pending amendment Link to an amendment published at 91 FR 62338, Oct. 1, 2026.

Any domestic carrier that seeks to discontinue, reduce or impair service shall be subject to the following procedures:

(a) The carrier shall notify all affected customers of the planned discontinuance, reduction, or impairment of service and shall notify and submit a copy of its application to the public utility commission and to the Governor of the State in which the discontinuance, reduction, or impairment of service is proposed; to any federally-recognized Tribal Nations with authority over the Tribal lands in which the discontinuance, reduction, or impairment of service is proposed; and also to the Secretary of Defense, Attn. Special Assistant for Telecommunications, Pentagon, Washington, DC 20301. Notice shall be in writing to each affected customer unless the Commission authorizes in advance, for good cause shown, another form of notice. For purposes of this section, notice by email constitutes notice in writing. Notice shall include the following:

(1) Name and address of carrier;

(2) Date of planned service discontinuance, reduction or impairment;

(3) Points of geographic areas of service affected;

(4) Brief description of type of service affected; and

(5) One of the following statements:

(i) The following statement: The FCC will normally authorize this proposed discontinuance of service (or reduction or impairment) unless it is shown that customers would be unable to receive service or a reasonable substitute from another carrier or that the public convenience and necessity is otherwise adversely affected. If you wish to object, you should file your comments as soon as possible, but no later than 15 days after the Commission releases public notice of the proposed discontinuance. You may file your comments electronically through the FCC's Electronic Comment Filing System using the docket number established in the Commission's public notice for this proceeding, or you may address them to the Federal Communications Commission, Wireline Competition Bureau, Competition Policy Division, Washington, DC 20554, and include in your comments a reference to the § 63.71 Application of (carrier's name). Comments should include specific information about the impact of this proposed discontinuance (or reduction or impairment) upon you or your company, including any inability to acquire reasonable substitute service.

(ii) For discontinuances involving technology transitions, as defined in § 63.60(i), in addition to the statement required by paragraph (a)(5)(i) of this section, specific information as to how a customer who wants to object to or comment on the proposed discontinuance of service will be able to do so, including but not limited to providing the master docket number established by the Wireline Competition Bureau for such objections and comments and the web page(s) identified by the Wireline Competition Bureau for further guidance and resources to file an objection or comment.

(b) If a carrier uses email to provide notice to affected customers, it must comply with the following requirements in addition to the requirements generally applicable to the notice:

(1) The carrier must have previously obtained express, verifiable, prior approval from retail customers to send notices via email regarding their service in general, or planned discontinuance, reduction, or impairment in particular;

(2) A carrier must ensure that the subject line of the message clearly and accurately identifies the subject matter of the email; and

(3) Any email notice returned to the carrier as undeliverable will not constitute the provision of notice to the customer.

(c) The carrier shall file with this Commission, on or after the date on which notice has been given to all affected customers, an application which shall contain the following:

(1) Caption—“Section 63.71 Application”;

(2) For technology transitions discontinuance applications, as defined in § 63.60(i):

(i) Statement identifying the application as involving a technology transition;

(ii) Statement of the difference in price, if any, between the service being discontinued and replacement services available in the affected service area; and

(iii) Brief description of the affected community or part of a community, including the population size and any relevant characteristics of the customer population affected;

(3) Information listed in § 63.71(a) (1) through (4) above;

(4) Brief description of the dates and methods of notice to all affected customers;

(5) Brief description of replacement services, whether available from the applicant or third parties, that would remain in the affected community or part of the affected community in the event the application is granted, including the name of any other carrier(s) providing replacement services to the affected community, and where in the affected community those services are available;

(6) Statement of the factors otherwise showing that neither the present nor future public convenience and necessity would be adversely affected by the granting of the application;

(7) For applications to discontinue a service supporting interconnection trunks or the exchange of traffic, in addition to the requirements set forth in §§ 63.500 and 63.501:

(i) Specific identity of the type of service to be discontinued in addition to any branded name of the service being discontinued;

(ii) Statement that at least 90 days prior to the planned discontinuance, the carrier provided a designated point of contact with authority to facilitate the orderly transition from legacy facilities that support 911 to the 911 Authorities, as defined in § 9.28 of this chapter, 911 service providers, and local exchange service providers that support essential functions within 911 networks in the affected service area. For purposes of this section, “911 service provider” is defined as an entity that provides 911, E911, or NG911 capabilities such as call routing, automatic location information, automatic number identification, or the functional equivalent of those capabilities, directly to a public safety answering point (PSAP), statewide default answering point, or appropriate local emergency authority as defined in § 9.3 of this chapter; and/or operates one or more central offices that directly serve a PSAP; and

(iii) List of the 911 Authorities, 911 service provider, and local exchange service providers that support essential functions within 911 networks in the affected service areas with which the carrier has coordinated and the date(s) of that coordination;

(8) A certification, executed by an officer or other authorized representative of the applicant and meeting the requirements of § 1.16 of this chapter, that the information required by this section is true and accurate; and

(9) Any other information the Commission may require.

(d) [Reserved]

(e) Discontinuance applications and all related attachments to the application filed under this section shall be filed through the “Submit a Non-Docketed Filing” module of the Commission's Electronic Comment Filing System.

(f)(1) The application to discontinue, reduce, or impair service that does not constitute a technology transition or, if constituting a technology transition, meets the requirements of paragraph (f)(2) of this section, shall be automatically granted on the 31st day after its filing with the Commission without any Commission notification to the applicant unless the Commission has notified the applicant that the grant will not be automatically effective. For purposes of this section, an application will be deemed filed on the date the Commission releases public notice of the filing.

(2) An application to discontinue, reduce, or impair an existing retail service as part of a technology transition, as defined in § 63.60(i), may be automatically granted only if the applicant certifies that in every location throughout the affected service area, at least one of the following types of services is available:

(i) A facilities-based interconnected VoIP service, as defined in § 9.3 of this chapter;

(ii) A facilities-based mobile wireless service operating at speeds of at least 5 Mbps download and 1 Mbps upload, consistent with the coverage parameters set forth in § 1.7004(c)(3) of this chapter;

(iii) A voice service offered pursuant to an obligation from one of the Commission's modernized high-cost support programs;

(iv) A voice service already available from the applicant in the affected service area that that the applicant certifies offers substantially similar levels of network performance and availability as the legacy voice service being discontinued based on the applicant's own internal network testing in connection with rolling out a new product or service, provides access to 911 and complies with applicable 911 requirements in part 9 of this title, and permits users generally to receive calls that originate on the public switched telephone network and to terminate calls to the public switched telephone network or any successor network that utilizes numbers issued pursuant to the North American Numbering Plan and supports access to 911 and complies with applicable 911 requirements in part 9 of this title; or

(v) A widely available alternative service offered by a third party that the applicant certifies offers substantially similar levels of network performance and availability as the legacy voice service being discontinued, and permits users generally to receive calls that originate on the public switched telephone network and to terminate calls to the public switched telephone network or any successor network that utilizes numbers issued pursuant to the North American Numbering Plan and supports access to 911 and complies with applicable 911 requirements in part 9 of this title.

(g) Notwithstanding any other provision of this section, a carrier is not required to file an application to discontinue, reduce, or impair a service for which the requesting carrier has had no customers or reasonable requests for service during the 30-day period immediately preceding the discontinuance.

(h) An application to discontinue, reduce, or impair a service filed by a competitive local exchange carrier in response to a copper retirement notice provided pursuant to § 51.333 of this chapter shall be automatically granted on the effective date of the copper retirement; provided that:

(1) The competitive local exchange carrier submits the application to the Commission for filing at least 40 days prior to the copper retirement effective date; and

(2) The application includes a certification, executed by an officer or other authorized representative of the applicant and meeting the requirements of § 1.16 of this chapter, that the copper retirement is the basis for the application and that the applicant has notified and coordinated with all 911 Authorities as defined in § 9.28 of this chapter with jurisdiction within the affected service area.

(i) Procedures for discontinuance, reduction or impairment of international services are in § 63.19.

(j)(1) Notwithstanding any other provision of this section, a carrier is not required to file an application to grandfather a legacy voice service, lower-speed data service, or interconnected VoIP service provisioned over copper wire; however, it must provide notice to existing customers that it is grandfathering a service they current receive from that carrier. Such notice shall include:

(i) An approximate date by which it intends to seek to permanently discontinue the service; and

(ii) A statement regarding alternative services available in the affected service area.

(2) For purposes of this paragraph (j), “lower-speed data service” is defined as a data service operating at speeds below 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload.

(k) Notwithstanding any other provision of this section, where a wholesale provider is engaging in a technology transitions discontinuance of a legacy voice service resold by another provider, the reseller is not required to file an application to discontinue the resold service, except that the reseller must provide notice to its customers, as soon as practicable, that it will no longer be able to provide the relevant legacy voice service. Such notice shall be via any means to which the customer has previously provided express, verifiable approval. Notice shall include the following:

(1) Name and address of carrier;

(2) Date of planned service discontinuance, reduction or impairment;

(3) Points of geographic areas of service affected;

(4) Brief description of type of service affected; and

(5) Statement regarding the availability of alternative services in the affected service area.

[64 FR 39939, July 23, 1999, as amended at 71 FR 65751, Nov. 9, 2006; 73 FR 56741, Sept. 30, 2008; 80 FR 1588, Jan. 13, 2015; 80 FR 63373, Oct. 19, 2015; 81 FR 62656, Sept. 12, 2016; 82 FR 25711, June 2, 2017; 82 FR 61478, Dec. 28, 2017; 83 FR 31675, July 9, 2018; 91 FR 20938, Apr. 20, 2026]