AT&T actively eliminating 'legacy' lndline customers?

[mgk920]

A few years ago I dropped an old 'legacy' landline phone service ('920-830-xxxx') after its  rate went from about a piddly $20/month to over $50/month and I upgraded an old 'stupid' cell phone to a fairly new smart phone ('920-810-xxxx').  (I had also been using the landline for a DSL internet connection before it became obsolete several years earlier, too.

One of my first thoughts after my AT&T bills went waaaaaaay  up was that they have begun actively eliminating all of their remaining old 'legacy' landlines (and their sometimes ancient infrastructure!), this by making them too expensive and complicated for their older and especially elderly customers to maintain and use.

Is there any truth to that assertion?

Mike

[kalvado]

Actually, there are options to accommodate those non-high-tech customers as well:
https://www.verizon.com/home-office-solutions/wireless-home-phone-lvp2/

There are few use cases where landline still the only way to go - notably some old cardiostimulators. But maintenance of those endless cable bundles is actually becoming too expensive with fewer people using them.

[In_Correct]

If there is Fiber available, the original Long Lines / Public Switched Telephone Network would be obsolete. These lines did every thing. They provided Radio, Television, Voice, Fax, Teleprinter, Minitel, and Internet ... utilizing Clumsy Robots ( " Pulse " ) in every Telephone Exchange. Now these Telecommunications can be done with Semiconductors ( " Tone " ) And Fiber Cables.

Verizon also offers Land Line Voice Services with Verizon Fios.

Actually, there are options to accommodate those non-high-tech customers as well:
https://www.verizon.com/home-office-solutions/wireless-home-phone-lvp2/

That device looks like a modified V.O.I.P. telephone, which is what I have. I previously used VOIPo. I currently have Magic Jack.

As I loathe Smart Phones, and I abhor Touch Screens, I like to have traditional Telephones.

V.O.I.P. is not a new technology.

Also the price listed is a monthly payment for the device, not the services.

If Fiber Cables are not available in your area, it is possible that your price increase is related to A. T. & T. them selves.

[NJRoadfan]

If your area has AT&T Fiber, then yes, the traditional copper pair landline is long gone. All the ILECs are actively retiring their copper landlines for fiber in areas that have been upgraded. Your only choice is to get an optical network terminal installed which has a RJ-11 POTS jack to connect telephones to.

The reason for the high price is that copper landlines are traditionally a tariffed service subject to state regulation and come with tons of taxes and fees attached. Fiber customers are usually switched to cheaper non-tariffed VoIP backed services.

[catch22]

Former AT&T Long Lines (later AT&T Communications) retiree here.

The concept of POTS being a copper cable pair all the way back to the central office is rapidly going away.  In my case, our POTS line (almost free as a retiree perk) is only copper back to the local cross connect box/fiber mux about 500 feet away.  It's fiber back to the CO, and is then served via packet-switching by a remote module from a CO 10 miles south of us (Nortel DMS-200). The old AT&T 1A ESS machine in our local CO was retired several years ago.

AT&T local services can be hit or miss re their outside plant.  I'm the technical contact at my church, and about 3 years ago AT&T wanted to move our two POTS lines to VOIP,  piggybacking on a new VDSL2 line they were installing for our Internet connection. We gave them the green light, the DSL line was installed and we moved our Internet link onto it, but for reasons unknown to us they never moved the POTS lines, so they're still copper (at least back to the fiber mux).

[JREwing78]

My parents were reliant on AT&T POTS lines that grew increasingly dilipidated over time. They would have months-long outages of their landline service.

They thankfully had fiber run to their house through the local power co-op, which brought them the ability to receive gigabit internet and reliable VoIP service.

It doesn't appear AT&T is much interested in being a landline or fiber provider. We're not much interested in paying them to be one.

SM-G991U

[bwana39]

There are still those of us who get our internet from DSL which is carried along traditional cables at least part of the distance. I have a POTS phone number, but we don't have an instrument attached. We used to, but when we called 911 and they couldn't find me and had me call back on my cell and could pinpoint me walking in the house it made even less sense to have POTS.

[mrsman]

About a year ago we replaced our landline by signing up for Ooma.  Basically, if you have internet service, it uses internet to provide call and voice mail services and allows us to keep our old landline number.  Much cheaper than what we were paying for the landline and well worth it IMO.

My wife and I also have our own cell phone numbers for a number of years, but felt that we had to maintain the landline phone number as we still get some calls to it and wanted to maintain the number in the cheapest way possible.