All year I’ve written about how telecom carriers are in the beginning stages of decommissioning their copper wire-based networks. These networks are aging, parts aren’t available, and technicians are retiring. With currently 40 million plain old telephone services (POTS) lines in the U.S., this cash cow of the telecom industry has become much more expensive for carriers to maintain and support.
Carriers have quietly tried to eliminate POTS lines, DSL, primary rate interfaces (PRIs), and private data services delivered over this old copper cable network. Carriers have been slowly attempting to discourage continued use of these services, by increasing pricing, not renewing contracts, ending maintenance and support, and requiring customers to move to VoIP (fiber) based services.
