AT&T Wants Out of the Phone Business (Kinda)
AT&T (the spiritual and near-literal successor to the Bell system that was once affectionately referred to as 'Ma Bell') has grown tired of supporting the relatively unprofitable landline business that kickstarted AT&T over a century ago. Therefore, they have asked the FCC to give them a date when they can bail on landline switches in favor of broadband access nationwide.
The corporation, whose investments in broadband, television, and mobile networks show an interest in moving to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) to marry those investments together better, struggles to find profit in those copper landlines and would like a chance to ditch them despite 20% of Americans who still use the technology.
Numerous questions are still unanswered (last mile broadband issues remain, emergency calls, people with disabilities, can the Internet even support all of this, etc.), but AT&T would like the U.S. government to push for the move to remove the copper weight dragging them down.
Still, AT&T probably doesn't want everyone to switch to cell phones tomorrow or anything quite so drastic. At least, everyone in New York City can take their time.
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