ALBANY, Ga. — Some Georgians who still rely on a traditional copper phone line could see that service end soon. AT&T is cleared to start discontinuing certain copper-based landline services in parts of 42 Georgia wire centers as early as Saturday, Nov. 15.
The change traces to applications AT&T filed with the Federal Communications Commission on Dec. 1, 2025. The biggest one targets basic home and business local phone lines, the old-style service often called POTS, serving about 90,000 customers scattered through parts of over 1,000 wire centers in 18 states, Georgia among them. The applications were automatically granted on Jan. 12 under the FCC’s streamlined process, with Nov. 15 set as the first allowed date.
In southwest Georgia, the wire centers on the list include Americus, Baconton, Camilla, Colquitt, Cordele, Leesburg, Newton, Pelham and Sylvester, according to an industry tracker that follows AT&T’s filings.
Being on the list does not mean everyone loses service. A wire center is a local phone office that serves a group of addresses, and the approval covers only portions of each one, not every line or customer. Nov. 15 is also only the earliest date AT&T can act, so lines will not all go dark that day.
AT&T is offering internet-based home phone service or mobile lines as replacements. Its main substitute, AT&T Phone Advanced, runs on the company’s LTE wireless network and comes with a backup battery that can keep it ready for as long as a day without power, which matters for customers who keep a landline for emergencies.
Customers who want to know whether their line is affected should check for notices mailed directly by AT&T, which is required to tell affected customers before service ends.
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