AT&T will end its landline phone service in nearly every state in its service area, including Oklahoma, the company announced this week.
Since early this year, AT&T has said its copper wire phone lines are “outdated” and require expensive services that are not as effective as wireless broadband networks.
However, critics say landlines are a crucial service for people living in rural areas with limited mobile services, especially the elderly who are more likely to rely on landlines.
AT&T currently operates a landline in 21 states and plans to eliminate the service in every state except California, according to reporting from USA TODAY.
Here’s what you need to know about AT&T’s landline service and how it affects you in Oklahoma.
When will AT&T eliminate landlines?
AT&T aims to eliminate landlines by 2029, the company said.
The company is allowing five years for the shift to notify customers and the Federal Communications Commission, an AT&T representative told USA TODAY. Cellular carriers must obtain approval from the FCC before discontinuing landline service to both new and existing customers.
“This is a multi-year process to ensure that every customer has a voice and 911 and access to an alternative before we can discontinue copper-based landline service,” said Susan Johnson, the company’s executive vice president for Wireline transformation and supply chain. .
Why is AT&T eliminating its landlines?
AT&T’s copper wire network is 70 years old and increasingly unreliable, Johnson said. It doesn’t do well in water or during storms and the company is “experiencing a lot of copper theft” as copper values rise, she said.
The network is also expensive to maintain and uses a lot of electricity and energy, Johnson said. He added that it is not good for the environment to spend resources on a technology that only 5% of residential customers and 5% of commercial customers use.
How common are landlines in Oklahoma?
Like the rest of the country, landline use in Oklahoma has declined in recent decades. According to a survey by chamberofcommerce.org, the Sooner State has one of the lowest percentages of adults still dependent on landlines, with 21.8% having a landline.
Nationwide, half of Americans over the age of 65 have a landline at home. The Northeastern United States is the region most dependent on landlines, with more than 40% of adults along the East Coast using their landlines.
In 2022, only 1.3% of Americans relied exclusively on landlines, while 25.4% used both cordless and landline phones. But the vast majority of Americans, 71.7%, rely exclusively on wireless communications.
In contrast, twenty years ago, only about 5% of Americans were completely dependent on cell phones. Consumers began abandoning landlines in large numbers around that time.
A visitor walks past an AT&T logo of the American multinational telecommunications company at the 2023 Mobile World Congress, the telecom industry’s largest annual meeting, in Barcelona.
What can AT&T landline users do?
If you’re a regular AT&T user in Oklahoma, you have a few options.
For customers who don’t want or need a broadband connection, Johnson said AT&T has a new product called “AT&T Phone – Advanced,” an alternative to a landline. It can be used with an existing landline phone, plugs into a jack, and connects to AT&T’s wireless network. The phone costs $45 a month, she said.
Someone can also switch to another mobile provider. Vonage, Spectrum, Verizon and Community Phone all still offer home phone service, although customers should check the carriers’ websites to see if coverage is available in their area.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: AT&T is ending landline service in Oklahoma. What you need to know
