Last updated · Written for practice managers and office administrators.
Yes, landlines are going away, in stages rather than on one date. The copper network behind traditional phone lines is being retired wire center by wire center, and carriers are also discontinuing some VoIP products they moved customers onto. Each change needs FCC authorization and written customer notice. Your number is not what ends; the line it sits on is.
What is actually ending
“Landline” covers three different things, and they are ending on different schedules.
| What you have | What is happening | Where the rule is |
|---|---|---|
| Copper POTS (plain old telephone service) | Being retired: the copper loop is removed or replaced with fiber, and the analog service on it is discontinued. | Copper retirement is defined in 47 CFR § 51.325; discontinuing the service needs FCC authority under 47 U.S.C. § 214. |
| Carrier VoIP that replaced POTS (for example AT&T Phone for Business) | Some of these products are themselves being discontinued in named wire centers. | FCC DA 25-1042 (WC Dockets 25-333, 25-334). |
| Remote Call Forwarding (a number in one area that forwards elsewhere) | Being discontinued alongside carrier VoIP in the same wire centers. | FCC DA 25-1042 (WC Docket 25-333). |
The distinction matters for a fax line. Many small offices had their fax number quietly moved from copper to a carrier VoIP product years ago. That office may think the copper story does not apply to it, and it may be right about copper while still being in scope for the VoIP discontinuance. The AT&T page separates the two.
When will landlines be phased out in the US?
There is no single switch-off date. Each carrier files for the wire centers it wants to retire, and the FCC public notice for that filing lists the affected services, the wire centers, and an “authorized date” on or after which the carrier may stop service. Two AT&T authorizations are already on the record:
- On or after July 14, 2026 — AT&T Residential Local Service (residential POTS), AT&T Business Local Exchange Access Line Service (business POTS) and AT&T Phone Service in 39 named wire centers (FCC DA 26-459, WC Docket 26-98).
- On or after November 15, 2026 — AT&T Phone and AT&T Phone for Business (VoIP) and Remote Call Forwarding or TeleBranch services in certain wire centers across 19 states (FCC DA 25-1042, WC Dockets 25-333 and 25-334).
Beyond those, carriers have announced multi-year programs to move off copper. We do not quote dates that we have not read in an FCC public notice, and neither should you: the date that applies to your building is the one in your carrier’s notice, and the copper retirement rules explain how that notice is supposed to reach you.
What a business should expect
Under 47 CFR § 63.71, a carrier that discontinues a service must notify affected customers in writing, and the notice must state the carrier, the planned date, the area and the service. The application is then subject to a short comment window at the FCC and is granted automatically if nobody objects successfully. The practical lesson from the filings so far is that the time between a public notice and an authorized date varies from a few months to about a year, and the FCC rules do not set a minimum. Treat a notice as a deadline, not a heads-up.
Carriers normally offer a replacement, usually a fiber or wireless voice product, and move the number to it. For a voice line that is often fine. For a fax line it is a product question: a fax machine on a replacement service works only if that service carries fax calls reliably, which the carrier may or may not commit to. The fax over VoIP guide explains why.
What it means for a fax line
A fax number is an ordinary telephone number, and the porting rules let you move it to another provider while the service is active. Three things change when the line behind it is retired:
- The dial tone the machine plugs into ends. Copper POTS delivers an analog loop; its replacements do not, or do so through an adapter.
- The number becomes the carrier’s decision once the line is disconnected. While the line is live, porting is routine. After disconnection, some carriers release the number and some do not, and under 47 CFR § 52.15 a disconnected business number can be reassigned to someone else after an aging period of 45 to 365 days.
- Every form, letterhead and payer directory that lists the number is at stake. A dental or medical office that has printed the same fax number for fifteen years has a strong reason to keep it.
The clean way out is to port the number to a service that does not depend on a phone line at all. An online fax service such as usfax.com holds the number on its own carrier network and delivers faxes to email and a web dashboard. The POTS replacement guide compares that with a cellular gateway and a VoIP adapter for the office that wants to keep a machine.
What to do, in order
- Identify the service behind the fax line. The bill will say whether it is a business line, a carrier VoIP product or Remote Call Forwarding. The POTS line definition helps decode the vocabulary.
- Look for a notice. Check mail addressed to the account holder, and check your carrier’s network disclosure pages (AT&T publishes at clec.att.com).
- Check portability while the line is live. Our free check tells you which carrier holds the number and whether it can move.
- Port, test, then cancel. Keep the old line active until the port completes. usfax.com charges nothing to port a number in; your current carrier may bill a port-out fee under its own terms.