For companies facing the removal of landlines, or wishing to move away from traditional phone service for other reasons, a convenient option for sending faxes without a landline is employing a fax over IP service.
Earlier this month AT&T announced it was taking steps to begin a trial to eliminate landline connections in Carbon Hill, Alabama and West Delray Beach, Florida, No Jitter reported.
If approved by the Federal Communications Commission, the carrier would cease to offer new landline connections and would move to disconnect all existing landlines by 2020. The phone company’s alternative to traditional phone lines is to make broadband and VoIP phone services available to all subscribers.
FCC officials said in a statement that the “lives of millions of Americans could be improved by the direct and spillover effects of the technology transitions, including innovations that cannot even be imagined today.”
According to The Wall Street Journal, AT&T has plans in place to convert its entire network, which stretches across 22 states, to Internet protocol technology within the next six years. The provider has already spent $6 billion over the last three years to make upgrades to its wire-based network, replacing much of it with fiber-optic cables.
Verizon has also been transitioning away from traditional copper phone lines, having spent more than $23 billion in the past 10 years to increase its fiber-based FiOS service according to….the Journal. The IP service already has 6 million customers in 12 states.
End of analog
Landlines have become less profitable in recent years. Forty percent of the U.S. population do not own a landline in their home, and the cost of maintaining an old, under-used network increases as demand goes down. According to the Journal, AT&T sometimes turns to eBay to find the spare parts it needs because they aren’t readily available from traditional retailers.
At the end of the day, AT&T and Verizon are still companies with shareholders that are expected to raise stock prices. Continuing to invest in old networks are a drain on carriers’ resources and returns.
Traditional, or circuit-switched, phone networks relied on individual point-to-point connections for each call to be made. Internet Protocol phone systems send traffic in small packets, allowing for carriers to reduce the number of switching points from thousands to just a handful.
AT&T has said that none of its customers will lose traditional phone service until the company has proven it can provide a landline alternative to those subscribers, but many business customers have concerns about the switch. Landlines are still used in many offices for alarm connections and elevator lines, as well as for sending and receiving faxes.
Faxing without a phone
For companies facing the removal of landlines, or wishing to move away from traditional phone service for other reasons, a convenient option for sending faxes is employing FoIP services. FoIP landline alternatives utilize the Internet to send messages, eliminating the need for a dedicated fax line and dramatically increasing the speed and ease of communication. Documents can be sent directly to a recipient’s email address, allowing for faxes to be read from anywhere on a mobile device.
Enhance enterprise communication, collaboration, and compliance efforts with a proven FoIP phone technology solution from FaxCore. Contact FaxCore today to learn more about AT&T eliminating their landlines and our ‘Partly-Cloudy’ fax solutions.
