By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON, May 20 (Reuters) – AT&T on Wednesday filed suit against California officials seeking a court order declaring it does not have ‌to continue offering traditional copper wire phone service to new customers ‌as it vowed to spend $19 billion on modern telecom services.

California requires the U.S. wireless carrier to ​spend $1 billion annually to maintain a century-old telephone network that few use, AT&T said, saying the network now serves just 3% of households in AT&T’s California territory.

AT&T’s suit named the California Public Utilities Commission and the state attorney general. The CPUC ‌did not immediately respond to ⁠a request for comment.

AT&T said it is committing to investing $19 billion in California as it works to connect more than ⁠4 million additional households and businesses across California by 2030 and added IP-based networks are far more reliable and efficient.

AT&T also Wednesday asked the Federal Communications Commission for ​permission to ​discontinue traditional phone service in parts of ​California where it has faster, ‌more reliable service available. It also filed a petition with the FCC to declare that California’s rules that effectively require AT&T to power, repair and sell traditional phone service, even after the FCC has authorized the service to be phased out, are preempted by federal standards.

AT&T added that transitioning from copper will save ‌an estimated 300 million kilowatt-hours annually by ​2030 or the equivalent of eliminating emissions from ​17 million gallons of gasoline. The ​company added that California has already suffered about 2,000 outages ‌from copper thefts this year and ​it struggles to find ​replacement parts.

The federal government and virtually all states where AT&T historically offered copper-wire service “have now eliminated outdated regulatory obstacles” allowing AT&T to begin powering ​down its old network ‌and increasing its investments in modern communication technologies, the company said ​in its lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in southern California.

(Reporting ​by David Shepardson; Editing by Franklin Paul)