AT&T lists parts of Gainesville for copper phone line retirement

AT&T has marked parts of its copper telephone network in Gainesville for retirement, according to a company network disclosure revised Oct. 7, 2024. The company's replacement home phone, Phone – Advanced, runs on a backup battery when the power fails. Calls during an outage, 911 included, need a corded phone, according to its user guide.

Denison also appears in federal records. A Federal Communications Commission notice dated Oct. 1, 2024, identifies an AT&T filing to retire copper in Denison's DESNTXHO wire center. In that filing, AT&T said the affected distribution areas had no current customers or working circuits. The record documents a planned retirement. It does not show that crews are pulling copper in Denison now, or that every landline in the city is being cut off.

AT&T says few customers still use the old lines. In an April 2026 update, the company said fewer than 2% of its eligible customers still used legacy copper voice service. It named fiber, wireless, Internet Air and Phone – Advanced as replacements.

The Phone – Advanced guide sets out the limits. The battery gives up to a day of standby power, depending on conditions. The corded phone must be one that draws no outside power. A household with no cellular signal that depends only on broadband loses phone service if that connection fails, the guide says.

In the same April update, AT&T said copper phone and broadband disconnections would begin in selected areas in summer 2026. Affected customers would get repeated notices over a year-long process, the company said, and service would stop for those who did not switch. The records reviewed for this report do not show whether Gainesville or Denison customers are in those first areas.

The local filings are part of a company-wide plan. At its 2024 investor day, AT&T announced plans to exit legacy copper operations across most of its wireline territory by the end of 2029. Its 2025 annual report says it fully powered down its first wire center that year. In its second-quarter 2026 results, AT&T reported that legacy revenue fell by about a quarter from a year earlier. The company tied most of that drop to falling demand as it decommissions the copper network.

The Gainesville notice, ATT20240175C.1, covers specified distribution areas in the city's GSVLTXHO wire center. The Denison filing, ATT20240025C.1, originally set the work for on or after April 12, 2024. AT&T advertises Phone – Advanced at $45 a month for unlimited nationwide calling. Taxes, fees and a one-time equipment charge come on top of that price.

In late 2024, adults 65 and older were far less likely than adults in their late 20s to be wireless-only, according to CDC survey estimates. The CDC counts an adult as wireless-only when that adult has a personal cellphone and lives in a home without a landline.