Business & Tech

Goodbye To Landlines? Law Would Let AT&T Hang Up Traditional Phone Service

Several groups, including AARP, are fighting back against the proposal.

AT&T is looking to hang up on traditional landline service. Two pieces of proposed legislation would allow the telecom giant to phase out its voice-only network in Illinois, forcing customers to go with wireless or internet-based offerings. And while more and more residents are dropping their landlines, groups including the Citizens Utility Board, AARP and the Illinois Public Interest Research Group are opposing the move.

Bills in both the Illinois House and Senate would allow AT&T to drop what it calls "old style landlines."

Less than 10 percent of Illinois households still have a landline, and AT&T Illinois President Paul La Schiazza told the Chicago Tribune that landlines are "technology that customers have said they don't want anymore, wasting precious hundreds of millions of dollars that could be going to the new technologies that would do a better job of serving customers."

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The company says it loses about 5,000 landline customers each week in Illinois.

But some groups are pushing back against proposals to do away with the voice-only network.

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Citizens Utility Board spokesman Jim Chilsen told CBS Chicago that his organization believes AT&T simply wants to force customers to choose more expensive, less reliable phone options, citing a recent cellular outage that affected AT&T customers in multiple states.

Chilsen told the Tribune the plan to do away with landlines would leave senior citizens — many of whom feel more secure with landlines vs. cellular options — behind. "A landline doesn't go out in an internet or power outage, it doesn't need to be charged, it doesn't need a battery backup, and it doesn't leave 911 dispatchers guessing," he said.

But AT&T argues that older landline equipment is getting harder to maintain. Those who currently have landlines could use modern equipment to plug their existing phones into lines that carry internet and data, La Schiazza told CBS.

More than a dozen states have already passed legislation allowing the company to phase out landline service. One Illinois proposal, Senate Bill 1381, is slated for a third reading by the end of May. Another piece of legislation, House Bill 2691, has been re-referred to the House Rules Committee.


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