Today, I achieved a dubious new record for the shortest appearance in a national media news report. See https://www.today.com/video/why-more-companies-are-hanging-up-on-landline-phones-254027845824.
On an NBC Today Show story about the imminent shut down of copper wireline telephone service, I stated: “The concern is: at the worst possible time, the phone doesn’t work.”
Ironically, just as I was online to participate in the Zoom interview, my microphone inexplicitly stopped working. An hour later, I managed to repair the problem without a premises visit, or telephone coaching from an expert. Estimates on current Illinois landline subscribers, scheduled to lose service in 2027, range from 1-3 million. See https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/att-to-end-landline-service-in-illinois/3859156/.
What could possibly go wrong with the migration from wireline service to AT&T’s proposed combination of broadband delivered Voice over the Internet Protocol (“VoIP”) backed up by a wireless, cellular service link? See https://www.att.com/home-phone/phone-advanced/.
I have addressed this issue through extensive legal and policy analysis. See, e.g.:
Remedies for Universal Service Funding Compassion Fatigue, 39 SANTA CLARA HIGH TECH LAW JOURNAL 395 (2023); https://digitalcommons.law.scu.edu/chtlj/vol39/iss4/2/;
How to Remedy Post Covid Pandemic Setbacks In Bridging The Digital Divide, 25 NORTH CAROLINA JOURNAL OF LAW AND TECHNOLOGY, Issue 1, 57 (2023); https://ncjolt.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2023/10/Frieden_Final.pdf;
The Mixed Blessing of a Deregulatory Endpoint for the Public Switched Telephone Network, 37 TELECOMMUNICATIONS POLICY, No. 4-5, 400-412 (May, 2013); https://doi.org/10.1016/j.telpol.2012.05.003;
Killing With Kindness: Fatal Flaws in the $6.5 Billion Universal Service Funding Mission and What Should be Done to Narrow the Digital Divide, 24 CARDOZO ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT LAW JOURNAL, No. 2, 447-490 (2006); https://cardozoaelj.com/wp-content/uploads/Journal%20Issues/Volume%2024/Issue%202/Frieden.pdf.
On occasion, I have tried to explain the considerable costs and benefits from the transition, see e.g., https://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2013/11/18/246001725/have-we-reached-the-end-of-the-landline.
But today, perhaps the best question to ask and answer is: Have you ever lost the ability to make or receive wireless telephone calls? Has you broadband access stopped working for no apparent reason?
I suspect everyone has encountered a problem. My worst case occurred when a garden variety thunderstorm created a four-day electrical outage largely due to the failure of the public utility to replace old poles and transformers.
Some other questions: What could possibly go wrong for 3 million involuntary participants obligated to install a VoIP device that AT&T estimates will only take 15 minutes to activate? Has anyone encountered a problem installing their cable modem, wireless router, and other so-called peripheral devices? Did you end up paying for someone to finish the job, just as AT&T is willing to do for an additional charge?
I explained that AT&T and other local exchange carriers have pursued a multiyear campaign to shut down landline service. No flash cut strategy like that pursued by Verizon after Superstorm Sandy decimated the local loop in parts of Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York.
All Good Things apparently must come to an end. In the case of wireline service: 99.999+% reliability, in light of phone company provided electricity and lots of underground conduit, and relatively low prices, certainly less than AT&T’s $45 plus taxes and fees rate for its Phone-Advanced replacement of Plain Old Telephone Service.
I appreciate that AT&T, Verizon, and other local exchange carriers incur a substantial financial burden maintaining the copper wireline network. However, I do not think the carriers, legislative and regulatory officials and other stakeholders appreciate what kind of burden will shift onto the wireline holdouts.
Current POTS subscribers are disproportionately rural, elderly, and solitary occupants. As well, they are mostly are so-called Digital Immigrants, not younger Digital Natives. They fervently believe: “if it is not broken, do not fix it.”
By disposition and circumstance, POTS subscribers are the most vulnerable to outages and calamities. Fiber optic links are rarely located in rural locales and cell towers are more widely spaced.
On a personal note, I gave up wireline service in 2025 and have determined that I live in a dead zone where cellphone service is not ideal. Can you hear me now?
Not necessarily.
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