In March 2026 the FCC removed the early warning that copper retirement used to come with.
If you are responsible for a building, a campus or a municipal account with analog phone lines on it, this is the change that matters. Here is what it did, and what it means for the lines you are responsible for.
What the order changed
Before March 2026, a carrier retiring copper in a wire center had to file with the FCC, open a public comment period, and clear an objection process. That filing was public. Anyone watching a wire center could see retirement coming months ahead.
The Network and Services Modernization Order eliminated that. Carriers no longer file retirement notices with the Commission. Direct notice to interconnecting carriers and to 911 providers continues, but the public docket entry that served as early warning is gone.
The practical effect: the notice arrives as a letter to whatever address receives your phone bill, and the clock it starts belongs to the carrier.
How much notice you actually get
Less than before. The notice window can be as short as 90 days.
Ninety days is enough to execute a plan you already have. It is not enough to build one — not across multiple buildings, with equipment to order, monitoring companies to coordinate, and inspections to pass, all competing for the same window.
It is also worth knowing where the letter lands. In a housing authority or a municipality, the billing address is frequently not where the person responsible for the fire panel sits.
Where retirement stands now
There is no national shutoff date. It happens wire center by wire center.
AT&T has stated a goal of exiting virtually all copper phone service by 2029 and has begun decommissioning in waves. Verizon has applied to discontinue copper service at hundreds of thousands of remaining locations. Lumen closed new copper orders across its legacy territory and publishes rolling retirement notices.
Pricing tells the same story. Legacy line pricing was deregulated, and carriers price copper to push migration. Industry reporting through 2026 puts typical business POTS at roughly $65 to $100 per line per month, with documented escalations into the several hundreds.
What this means for code-bound equipment
Elevator emergency phones, fire alarm panel communicators, area-of-refuge phones and alarm dialers were designed around a supervised analog line. The codes that govern them — NFPA 72 and ASME A17.1 among them — assume that connection exists.
A standard VoIP line does not automatically satisfy those requirements. When copper goes, those systems need a purpose-built replacement, not a swap onto the office phone system.
This is where the 90-day window bites hardest. Re-engineering a certified fire or elevator system takes longer than the notice period allows.
What to do before your letter arrives
1. Inventory the lines. Know which copper lines you have and what each one feeds. Most organizations cannot answer this, and a meaningful share of lines on any given bill are dead or duplicated.
2. Separate code-bound from everything else. Elevator phones and fire panels need a compliant replacement. Fax lines and card terminals do not.
3. Decide convert or replace. Converting a system to IP is a capital project. Replacing the line underneath is a swap. For life-safety equipment on a short clock, the second is almost always the right first move.
4. Sequence by risk. Sites in wire centers already noticed, and lines attached to an inspection deadline, go first.
The fastest way to start is a phone bill. Send us a recent one and we will tell you what every line feeds, which ones you can cancel outright, which ones are tied to code, and what replacement costs. No obligation.
Frequently asked questions
Can I still track retirement notices myself?
Not the way you could before. The public docket entry that served as early warning no longer exists. Notice to interconnecting carriers and 911 providers continues, but that is not visible to you.
Does this mean my line is being shut off soon?
Not necessarily. It means you will get less warning when it happens, and that the decision is entirely the carrier’s. Assume the letter is the first thing you will see.
We already moved our phones to VoIP. Are we fine?
Your voice lines are. Your elevator phones, fire panel and alarm dialers may not be — moving those onto a standard VoIP system is one of the most common ways buildings fail a re-inspection.
Start with the audit
Send a recent phone bill. We will tell you what every line feeds, which ones are code-bound, and what replacement costs, before you commit to anything.