This is a shame. I have a foot in the Emergency Management world and one of the things we always recommend is POTS - plain old telephone service. It’s always worth having a landline around because it is very robust against network disruptions when communications count.
Strikes me as way too early. Large parts of the country are stuck on copper because upgrading to fttp is deemed too expensive (I am, and I’m not exactly out in the sticks). Maybe in a few years … I’m lucky I restarted my line when I did.
Copper will still be used, its just the traditional analogue phone signal delivered over the copper that is stopping. New (and changed/upgraded) users will instead receive a digital phone service, effectively over broadband (which can still be delivered over copper lines).
Sad times. I always liked having a corded phone powered off the phone line, that way if the power went out it would still work. Granted, these days you’d fall back to a mobile, but I like the nostalgia.
I also hate the idea that customers are paying twice for the same thing. I pay for my internet connection, I pay for my phone, but now my phone is using my internet connection. It’s almost as bad as Sky are trying to do with their phase out of satellite.
I believe a lot of analog phones now transfer to VoIP at the cabinet. Those cabinets don’t have a UPS in them. A friend of mine (naively) thought putting his ASDL modem on a UPS would keep his internet working during a power cut. His side worked, unfortunately the street box went dark, till the power came back up.
Even an analog phone will now fall over in a power cut.
