Most business phone lines in the US now run over the internet. But the FCC still counted about 8.6 million traditional business phone lines being used, which accounts for about 1 in 6.
And if you fall into that category, landlines are getting a lot more expensive.
Case in point: AT&T’s June 2026 rate filing in North Carolina lists residential phone lines at $59 per month. Whereas published month-to-month rate for a basic business line now sits at $3,995.
Same company. Same kind of copper line. But roughly 67 times the price.
What’s even crazier is that the basic business line was $2,774 when they published it in March 2026 (still absurdly high). That’s a 44% increase in just three months.
It’s just one example, but it’s a sign of where the big carriers are headed. They’re all winding down their old copper networks.
And a federal rule taking effect on October 15th makes it easier for them to retire those networks altogether.
Is Your Business Still on a Copper Wire Phone Service?
The biggest impact here is on traditional landlines running over old copper wire networks owned by the local phone company.
Think Verizon, AT&T, CenturyLink (Lumen), Frontier, and similar carriers. You’ll sometimes hear these called POTS lines: short for “plain old telephone service.”
Plenty of businesses already moved main phones to internet-based systems (VoIP) years ago. But the problem is largely within the lines nobody thinks about because nobody actually dials them.
Copper is still common for:
- Fax machines
- Fire and burglar alarm systems that dial out to a monitoring company
- Emergency phones in elevators
- Gate and door entry systems
- Older credit card terminals and modems
- Backup lines kept around “just in case”
Some older office phone systems are caught up in this too. Carriers are also retiring legacy digital services like T1, PRI, and PBX trunk lines that connect an on-site phone system to the outside world.
Even if your bill doesn’t say AT&T or Verizon on it, some providers buy copper lines wholesale from the big carriers and resell them under their own name. So this could still apply to you.
Why Copper Keeps Getting More Expensive
The short version is that phone companies don’t want to run copper networks anymore.
They’re old and expensive to maintain. Plus they break in storms and fewer customers use them every year. AT&T has publicly said they spend about $6 billion annually in direct costs just to keep copper running, and they plan to exit copper across most of its footprint by the end of 2029.
Meanwhile, the number of traditional phone lines is falling. From about 27 million in 2022 down to 15 million in 2025.
So you’ve got the same aging network but spread across far fewer paying lines.
And regulators aren’t setting prices anymore. Business phone rates used to run through tariffs that state regulators oversaw. Now companies set their own price lists, and you can track a rate increase every year on business lines since the final tariffs were taken.
It’s also worth noting that the carriers would rather have you leave. Some of these companies have stopped taking new orders for copper business links and trunks in certain regions.
So when a carrier isn’t trying to win new customers and they’re trying to exit a market, there’s no reason for them to keep the pricing competitive for those still on it.
How Recent FCC Changes Are Driving Costs Even Higher
On March 26, 2026, the FCC unanimously voted to make it easier for carriers to get off copper. In plain English, the order accomplished four things:
1). Carriers no longer have to file with the FCC before retiring copper wire. Though they still have to post public notice and give advance warning to connecting carriers and 911 providers.
2). Carriers can stop selling legacy copper services to new customers without asking the FCC first. Existing customers would have to be told, including roughly when the carrier plans to end the service and what alternatives are available.
3). Requests to shut off service for existing customers get approved automatically 31 days after the FCC posts public notice. To qualify, the carrier has to show a replacement service is available throughout the area.
4). State and local rules that conflict with this are subject to preemption, meaning the federal guidelines from the FCC overrule them.
Part of the order took effect in May. The rest was held up on approvals that came through in September, and everything officially is effective October 15, 2026.
There’s no nationwide shutoff of copper lines or anything like that. But by making it easier for carriers to move off copper wire, costs will continue to increase for businesses staying on them.
Where Businesses Are Losing Money Right Now
Anything running on copper is expensive and should be addressed. If your main phone lines are on these legacy networks, start there.
Then look at lines nobody uses anymore. Like fax machines that may not even be hooked up. Or alarm lines at a closed location.
You’d be shocked how many “backup” lines we find when auditing this stuff for our clients. People don’t even know about it because they were set up years ago and simply never canceled.
Another angle to consider is the contract lock. Lots of businesses haven’t seen a massive increase quite yet because they signed a reasonable price a few years ago.
But that protection ends as soon as the term does.
So you could potentially be affected by a huge increase in the coming year and not even realize it’s coming. You’re better off getting ahead of this now instead of scrambling at the last minute.
What to Do Before Your Carrier Decides For You
You don’t need to rip up all your phone lines just yet. And you don’t need to switch carriers either. But you need to have a solid understanding of what’s under the hood:
Find every line: Pull your phone bills for every location and match each line with an actual device. Facilities, IT, and whoever handles your alarm monitoring often know about different lines. So ask all of them.
Cancel what you don’t use: Just confirm first that the line doesn’t serve something important like an alarm, elevator, or critical equipment that only dials out once in a while.
Check your contract dates: Know when each term ends and don’t let a cheap legacy rate quietly roll into month-to-month pricing.
Plan the changeover on your schedule: Getting off copper doesn’t mean leaving your carrier. You just need an infrastructure change, which can be handled directly with whoever your provider is.
Just because your phone carrier is trying to get off copper and increasing prices accordingly, it doesn’t mean they want to lose your account. So you can use this to your advantage by negotiating better terms on whatever system is the best fit for your business.
This is the kind of stuff that often falls through the cracks because nobody owns it. Bills show up and get paid, but the costs keep rising and the line stays on the account for another year.
Here at The Cost Guards, we can review your telecom invoices line by line to find out what you should be paying and negotiate better terms with the carriers you’re already using. You don’t pay anything unless we save you money.
So if you’re sure what you’re paying for or if your business phone bill is rising unexpectedly, reach out and we’ll let you know what’s going on. Audits are 100% free. No strings attached.