AT&T is ending its landline phone services in Illinois as the utility moves to a digital home phone service over the next two years.
The utility is phasing out landline use as it works with customers to “upgrade their copper-based service to newer, less expensive options like AT&T Phone – Advanced,” a spokesperson told NBC Chicago.
Current customers can keep their existing landline service until it is discontinued in 2027, the AT&T spokesperson said. However, AT&T sent letters to customers notifying them that as of Oct. 15 landline service is no longer being offered to new customers and current customers cannot make changes to their existing service, according to CUB.
The phasing out process will take multiple years, the spokesperson added, and no customers will be left without access to voice or 911 service.
Over 3 million Illinois adults had a landline phone as of July 2024, according to a study from research firm Chamber of Commerce. Though not all of the landline phones in Illinois are serviced by AT&T, most are, according to Illinois consumer advocacy group Citizens Utility Board.
AT&T, however, says orders for traditional landline voice services have decreased 96% since 2014 and less than 2% of eligible customers are still using the legacy landline technology.
Despite the utility’s claims of waning interest in landlines from customers, Citizens Utility Board Communications Director Jim Chilsen said the organization is of the belief that “there are still a significant number of people–many of them AT&T’s longest-standing and most loyal customers–who could benefit from the reliability and affordability of traditional phone service.”
“Traditional landline service was once the most reliable and affordable option for many customers who just wanted no-frills phone service,” Chilsen said. “It is sad and frustrating how AT&T in recent years has increased the price of traditional landline service, pushing many customers to more expensive and less reliable options–and now the phone giant is ending the service altogether.”
AT&T Phone — Advanced, also called AP-A, is a digital home phone service that works similar to a traditional landline, the company’s spokesperson said. It is offered at a comparable or sometimes lower cost.
Customers who switch to AP-A are able to keep their existing number and can even use their current telephone, according to AT&T. It also works with a number of other technologies, including fax machines, alarms, elevators and medical monitoring devices.
Unlike the traditional landlines, AP-A uses AT&T’s wireless network and allows customers to stay connected during an outage by tapping into broadband connection as a backup, the utility said in a statement. It also features caller ID and call blocking for spam calls.
Illinois is the only state that requires the utility give more than a year of advanced notice to customers ahead of filing to discontinue service at the FCC and AT&T will notify customers multiple times throughout the process, the spokesperson said.
NBC Chicago spoke to Illinois residents who rely on their landline in 2017 when AT&T began lobbying for two deregulation bills that CUB warned would “open the door” for the utility to end landline service.
“What would I do?” one resident said to NBC Chicago in 2017. “How would I talk to my friends?”
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