Thoughts and prayers for the copper landline telephone. The aged system, which connected the world, rests comfortably, with a DNR order, in technology’s version of hospice care.

AT&T had previously announced a phase out of the old copper-wire-based analog system by the end of this decade. That process has already begun throughout Ohio.

In three filings this year, AT&T notified the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio that it no longer will offer new basic local exchange service to homes and businesses in 248 locales in the state.

“We have newer, high quality voice services available that may be less expensive, so we’re no longer offering copper-based landline service to new customers in certain areas,” said AT&T spokesman Phil Hayes.

For now, those with copper landlines can keep and use them, but AT&T wants to exit the copper network in most areas by 2030.

And they’re not the only company clipping the copper line. Others, such as Verizon and CenturyLink, are doing the same, in favor of fiber optic cables, satellite and voice over internet protocol delivery systems.

“It’s on its way out, rapidly,” explained Don Woodbury, owner of Oldphoneworks, a vintage phone business in Kingston Ontario, Canada.

Three years ago, only 360,000 of Ohio’s 4.9 million households still had copper landline basic exchange phones, according to the Office of the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel. And that number has surely further dwindled, said counsel spokesman J.P. Blackwood.

The pros of modern systems are many in today’s digital world — mobility, software, compatibility and reduced vulnerability. One benefit of copper lines, though, is that they work even during a power outage. So whether the end of copper landlines is a good thing can be debated.

Those kind of lines have been around since shortly after Alexander Graham Bell uttered, “Mr. Watson, come here; I want to see you,” in the world’s first phone call on March 10, 1876.

And with those copper landlines, the home phone became an integral part of life itself — a piece of Americana for the Greatest and Silent generations, Baby Boomers and even some Gen Xers.

The new phone book is here!

“There is a whole generation that doesn’t know a basic landline phone. … They were never exposed,” said Woodbury.

They may not even understand the origins of some iconic phone-related terms used in everyday conversation and texts, such as:

Hang up: To end a call, the user had to place, or hang, a handheld receiver in the cradle of a wall-mounted phone unit.

Dial a number: Until about 1970, users had to place a finger inside numbered circles and turn a rotary pad for each digit of a phone number.

The 411: These days, it simply means details or scoop on any subject. Like “What’s the 411 on Taylor Swift’s wedding date?” But it’s a throwback to when users had to dial those three digits to ask for the phone number of a person or business, especially one not in the immediate area.

Phone book: Largely pre-internet, these sometimes gargantuan volumes for every geographic area in the U.S. contained names and home phone numbers in the white pages and businesses in the yellow pages. A new one came out every year and it was a really big deal (to understand how big, check out Steve Martin gleefully welcoming a new phone book arriving in the 1979 movie “The Jerk.”)

Off the hook: Not the crazy good time had by all. Rather, this is how your parents, grandparents and great-grandparents used to ghost someone. They’d take the handheld receiver out of the phone unit, so would-be callers would hear only an incessant busy signal.

Woodbury’s Oldphoneworks business boasts a warehouse full of 100,000 vintage phones. Ironically, the company’s foundation was laid in 2001 at a cell phone store he operated.

“I wanted to set up a display of old phones in the store,” he said.

So he bought a few.

Then he bought more and more.

“You’d be surprised what ends up in old barns,” Woodbury said.

Oldphoneworks’ customers include the TV and movie industry who need them as props for various eras; collectors and history buffs; and boutique hotels such as the 1960s-themed TWA Hotel at John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens, New York.

“We supplied them with 600 rotary dial phones,” he said.

In many cases, Woodbury can modify vintage phones to make them modern. His company can add bluetooth or a pulse tone converter to make rotary phones work with today’s technology.

He said his business, which served many customers in the U.S., has become “collateral damage” of the trade war. Tariffs on components inside the old phones, he explained, has made them too expensive for many in the United States.

Feeling sentimental? AT&T wants to hear from you

Those copper lines, which convert sound waves into an electric signal, before it’s converted back into sound waves on the receiving end, haven’t changed much.

But the phone units themselves evolved through the years. Early candlestick-styles with short receiver cords were replaced by rotary then touch dial tabletop and wall-mounted varieties with longer cords. By the 1950s, the standard drab black-colored phone became available in assorted colors, such as green, yellow, blue and beige. Then, in the 1980s, the introduction of cordless phones served as the precursor to cell phones.

To this day, many can still remember their childhood home phone number, their first phone number or the number of a sweetheart.

Hayes said AT&T appreciates the sentiment. But he also pointed out that newer offerings, such as AT&T Phone-Advanced, and even wireless, do allow customers to keep their old phone number.

The company has embraced home phone nostalgia with its “Every number tells a story” campaign.

“We memorized our phone number as school children in case of emergencies. We scribbled it on scraps of paper to share with friends. We knew that grandma kept it near the phone in the kitchen so that she could call on our birthday,” the campaign’s web page states.

“So if your readers have a landline number they just can’t forget — a memory they want to keep alive — AT&T wants to hear it,” Hayes said.

To submit a personal story, which could ultimately become part of the company’s official archives, you can call a special hotline at 855-551-2662 or submit it online at attconnects.com/everynumber.

Regulation, deregulation and how we got here

“It took the American people about 70 years to bring AT&T under regulatory control,” said Dan Schiller, a professor emeritus at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and a communications and information historian.

He’s authored several books on telecommunications, including “Crossed Wires: The Conflicted History of U.S. Telecommunications, From The Post Office To The Internet,” published two years ago.

For much of the 20th century, AT&T’s Bell phone system, which included Ohio Bell, was effectively a national monopoly. Its power even earned it an enduring nickname of “Ma Bell.”

Schiller said the Federal Communications Commission, created in 1934, worked with state public utilities commissions for decades to create universal home phone service at an affordable rate.

“Despite some regional inequities, over 90% of households had phone service by the early 1970s,” he said.

All was good.

Then everything changed.

In 1974, the U.S. Department of Justice proposed a plan to splinter the monopoly.

“One of the largest antitrust cases in American history,” Schiller said.

The suit finally was resolved in 1982.

“It broke AT&T into seven pieces,” Schiller said.

Those newly created “Baby Bells,” included Ameritech in Northeast Ohio, which later was acquired by SBC, then back to AT&T.

“At the time, everybody involved was trying to get out from under the regulations,” Schiller said.

The federal Telecommunications Act of 1996 finally lifted many regulations, in hopes of spurring competition and lower prices for consumers. It didn’t exactly work out as planned.

“All the regional companies began to merge with one another,” Schiller said.

Those gigantic new local companies wanted to do and offer more.

“What they didn’t want to do was provide basic … residential service,” he said.

Especially on a decrepit copper wire system, which costs a lot of money to fix and operate. There’s more money to be made from customers on systems that use more modern technology. And corporate America, not residential users, Schiller said, have historically shaped the economics of the industry.

“This is the last shoe dropping,” Schiller said.

The long battleground of the phone

Hayes said AT&T’s legacy copper network no longer meets customer needs for speed, reliability and always-on connectivity.

Orders for traditional landline service from the company have decreased by 96% in the last decade, he said. And less than 3% of its residential customers still use copper voice technology.

Matt Schilling, a spokesman for the Ohio PUCO, said AT&T’s decision to abandon new copper line installations required only notification, not approval.

So do consumers care about the copper line’s in-process obituary?

During public comment periods for AT&T’s first two filings with the PUCO this year, only one person responded. Becky Minder of New Metamoras, along the Ohio River border with West Virginia, wrote, in part:

“Our landlines are essential due to the large dead zone areas for cell phones and lack of affordable and reliable internet options in our area. Not being able to get or keep landlines in this area could be dangerous and potentially life threatening in cases of emergency.”

Blackwood, of the Consumers’ Counsel, said the office has represented Ohioans’ interests in landline access, competition and affordability since 1977, its first full year of operation.

In fact, one of its former lawyers Bruce Weston (and then counsel) participated in the landmark AT&T antitrust case. The office also was involved in cases to reduce phone call costs to nearby communities.

“This was in the era where long-distance costs were exorbitant, typically up to 25 cents a minute for regional calls and sometimes more than a dollar a minute for cross-country calls,” Blackwood said.

The office, he said, has also advocated for consumers on phone service accessibility, especially for rural users with spotty or limited access to affordable cell service, and on landline repair and outage issues, most recently for customers of Frontier Phone Service.

“We’ve represented consumers in telephone rate cases and lobbied for the creation of the do-not-call list,” Blackwood said. “We’ve also fought for consumers in support of the Lifeline program which helps low-income consumers afford telephone and internet service.”

But saving landlines, these days, is a different story.

“We will continue to fight for access to landline service and to protect consumers where landlines are being phased out,” he said. “But with changes in technology, state and federal law, this is truly an uphill battle.”

Copyright ©2025— Trib Total Media, LLC (TribLIVE.com)