AT&T is currently asking the approval of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to shut down its old copper networks due to reasonable reasons.
As revealed by PhoneArena, the wireless carrier penned a letter to the regulatory agency at the start of November to shut down a legacy Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) based voice service in Oklahoma. The wireless carrier hopes to start the process by December 15, 2024, so that they can permanently shut down the network by September 15, 2025.
AT&T reveals that “there is virtually no demand for the service” in the letter. As evidence of this, new orders for the residential local service have since plummeted 96% from 2014. Before it submitted its letter, the network only accounted for 52 subscribers who have signed up for the Affected Service Area in Oklahoma. While there are 2,700 “living units,” AT&T only got one new service order in the past year.
Not to mention, in a span of a year, 20 customers had canceled their subscriptions. This is because 95% of the households that AT&T serves have started to use a newer service that addresses their needs. Plus, there are several options available for voice services, like cable, fiber, fixed wireless, satellite, and mobile wireless.
This seems to be a valid reason for AT&T’s request. The wireless carrier shared that they are already working with the existing network’s customers by transitioning them to their mobile network in the area.
Source: PhoneArena
