AT&T CEO John Stankey told investors on Oct. 21 that the company is “on track to reach our target of discontinuing copper-based services in 50% of our wire centers outside of California” by the end of 2027, “and substantially all of them by the end of 2029.”
Wire centers are the local switching offices that run traditional landlines. Stankey said AT&T already has more than 100 of them with no copper customers left, and the company has shut off copper service in more than 500 communities covering 1.3 million locations across 18 states.
Older households are most affected. In the second half of 2024, 57.9% of adults 65 and older lived in homes with only wireless phones, compared with 78% of all adults.
1. Your old phone may not work with the replacement
AT&T’s main substitute, AT&T Phone-Advanced, runs over the company’s cellular network or your home internet connection. You keep your number and plug your existing phone into a small device that should sit on the first or second floor, near a window or an outside wall.
Rotary and pulse-dial phones are not supported. If the phone on your kitchen wall still has a dial, plan on replacing it with a touch-tone model.
2. A power outage works...