AT&T to Start Copper Retirement Process at 25 Percent of Wire Centers
CEO John Stankey said the company will submit necessary FCC filings in the coming weeks.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 27, 2025 – AT&T aims to start the process of retiring phone service at about a quarter of its wire centers in the coming weeks, the company’s CEO said Monday.
“Within the next few weeks, we will make detailed filings with the FCC to stop selling legacy products at about 1,300 wire centers,” AT&T CEO John Stankey said on the wireless giant’s earnings call. The company has about 4,600 wire centers, central offices to which old copper phone lines connect.
The large-scale filing is possible in part because AT&T got Federal Communications Commission approval in late December to use a product that connects to its wireless network as a landline replacement—the initial application was just for a few wire centers in Oklahoma, but approval set a favorable precedent for using the solution more widely.
