FCC Grants AT&T Applications to Discontinue POTS in Portions of 18 States On or After November 15, 2026

On January 12, 2026, three applications by AT&T Services, Inc. to discontinue legacy voice services in portions of 19 states were deemed granted under the Federal Communications Commission’s streamlined discontinuance process. The largest, in WC Docket No. 25-335, covers AT&T Residential Local Service and AT&T Business Local Exchange Access Line Service, which the application describes as “legacy voice services often referred to as ‘POTS’,” for approximately 90,000 customers in portions of wire centers in 18 states. All three applications authorize discontinuance on or after November 15, 2026.

What AT&T filed

On December 1, 2025, AT&T filed the applications under Section 214(a) of the Communications Act and Section 63.71 of the FCC’s rules. The applicants are AT&T’s incumbent local exchange carrier affiliates: BellSouth Telecommunications (AT&T Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee), Indiana Bell, Michigan Bell, Ohio Bell, Southwestern Bell (AT&T Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas), and Wisconsin Bell. The two companion applications also include Illinois Bell.

WC Docket	Affected services	Service area
25-335	AT&T Residential Local Service and AT&T Business Local Exchange Access Line Service, provided to approximately 90,000 customers	Portions of wire centers in 18 states
25-333	Remote Call Forwarding Service and TeleBranch	Certain wire centers in 19 states
25-334	AT&T Phone Service and AT&T Phone for Business where AT&T can provide them only over copper	Certain wire centers in 19 states

The 18 states in the POTS application are Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Wisconsin. The companion applications add Illinois. Exhibit 1 of the POTS application lists more than 1,000 AT&T wire centers, from 19 in Florida to more than 100 each in Michigan and Texas.

AT&T states that it had previously grandfathered each affected service in these areas, so it no longer accepts new orders for them. The POTS application identifies itself as a technology transition because no other TDM-based voice service is available in the affected area. The VoIP application states that AT&T “will continue to provide, and accept new orders for” AT&T Phone and AT&T Phone for Business in parts of these wire centers where it can deliver them over fiber.

Dates and process

• November 3–20, 2025. Customer notices were mailed. Residential POTS and AT&T Phone customers were notified between November 3 and November 14, business POTS and Remote Call Forwarding customers on November 14, and AT&T Phone for Business customers on November 20. The business POTS notice states that “effective on or after November 15, 2026, pending regulatory approval,” AT&T will no longer offer the service, “after which it is subject to disconnection.”
• December 1, 2025. Applications filed. Copies went to each affected state’s governor and public utility commission, to federally recognized tribes in the affected areas, and to the Department of Defense Chief Information Officer. The Florida Public Service Commission posted its courtesy copy of the POTS application on December 10, 2025.
• December 12, 2025. The FCC’s Wireline Competition Bureau released public notices DA 25-1043, covering the POTS application, and DA 25-1042, covering the two companion applications. Each found its applications acceptable for filing and set comments due December 29, 2025.
• January 9, 2026. AT&T filed a reply in WC Docket No. 25-335 to a residential customer’s letter opposing the POTS application.
• January 12, 2026. The applications were deemed granted automatically, the 31st day after the public notices, under 47 C.F.R. § 63.71(f). As of October 19, 2026, the FCC’s docket records for all three list no Commission action after the public notices. On January 13, 2026, Broadband Breakfast reported the grant, quoting Rhonda Johnson, AT&T’s EVP of federal regulatory relations, who described it as covering “copper-based services in an additional 25% of our wire centers.”
• On or after November 15, 2026. Authorized discontinuance date in both public notices. The notices state that a deemed-granted applicant may discontinue service on or after the authorized date “in accordance with their filed representations.”

Replacement service cited

AT&T’s request for streamlined treatment of the POTS application rests on AT&T Phone – Advanced and AT&T Phone for Business – Advanced, including the renamed AT&T Business Voice. The application says the FCC found these to be adequate replacements for POTS in earlier AT&T discontinuance dockets. It states that the service uses AT&T’s LTE network for connectivity and that the network covers all affected customers. It also names Verizon’s mobile wireless service as an adequate replacement, but AT&T does not rely on it for streamlined treatment.

The service disclosures attached to the customer notices state that the device includes a built-in battery rated for up to 24 hours on standby, and that if it has neither electrical nor battery power, “the AP-A service will not work, including emergency 911 service.” The business disclosure adds that the service “does not provide line power.”

Relevance to DataRemote customers

The POTS application covers business as well as residential lines. Fire alarm panels, elevator emergency phones, fax machines, and other analog endpoints on AT&T POTS lines at locations within the affected portions of the listed wire centers fall within the authorized discontinuance areas. DataRemote’s POTS line replacement appliances are designed to keep such equipment operating over managed cellular service, and the 90X1, 90X2, VAB-1, CDS-9010, and CDS-9090 hold AT&T network certification. What building owners and facilities teams should do about AT&T’s retirements is covered separately in AT&T Copper Retirement: What It Means for You and Copper Shutdown: A Building Owner’s Guide.

Scope

• This record covers WC Docket Nos. 25-333, 25-334, and 25-335. It does not cover two other AT&T dockets in the same public notices. WC Docket No. 25-336, also filed December 1, 2025, covers optical carrier, LightGate, and SONET ring special access services in portions of Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin, on or after November 15, 2026. WC Docket No. 25-327 covers AT&T Residential Local Service in seven named wire centers in Kansas, Kentucky, Texas, and Wisconsin, on or after March 3, 2026.
• Business lines sold by AT&T’s competitive carrier affiliates as PrimePath Service or with AT&T Business Network, OneNet Option, or ACC Business are the subject of a separate, later application: WC Docket No. 26-276.
• Service areas are the portions of the wire centers listed in each application’s Exhibit 1, not entire states. Whether a location is affected depends on its address.
• This record summarizes AT&T’s filed applications and the FCC’s public notices as published. The FCC network modernization rules and FCC copper retirement rules pages describe the underlying framework.

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