AT&T still needs to get approval from California to discontinue its copper network in the state.
Believe it or not, there was a time when there were no mobile phones, no cell towers, and pay phones dotted the big cities. Families had a landline and one to three phones, depending on how many people lived at a specific address. If one wanted sports scores, the weather, stock market news, or the news from around the world via his/her phone, a call could be made to specialty phone lines. For example, in New York, there were numbers like Sportsphone (976-1313) that charged a premium price per minute to hear a pre-recorded tape with the latest scores.
While we’ve come a long way since then, some of the older technology remains and is slowly being shut down. AT&T, the company associated with providing phone service in the U.S. since 1885, has received approval from the FCC to stop using its copper services in about 500 wire centers. That represents about 10% of the company’s legacy copper network. The company was incorporated as a subsidiary of Bell Telephone, which was founded in 1877 by Alexander Graham Bell.
AT&T’s plan is to completely shut down its legacy copper network by 2029. The popularity of cellphones and smartphones in particular, combined with the availability of affordable wireless plans from pre-paid MVNO wireless providers, has made it possible for as much as 92% of the adult population in the U.S. to own a smartphone. Back in 2011, that percentage was 35%.
In March, the FCC started the process to speed up the task of retiring the copper networks that were used to carry phone calls for so many years.
