The End of Landlines?

Published April 8, 2015 at 10:00 AM EDT

Ericsson rotary telephone from 1939 — AT&T and Verizon want to trade landlines for internet-based phones. Many customers are protesting cutting landline service.

For the past few years, AT&T and Verizon have been attempting to get their customers to abandon landlines and move to phones based on internet service. Their goal is to finalize such a transition by 2020.

This proposal has met with opposition, however, from those who say that copper-based landlines are still a necessity for millions of Americans. This episode, we look at the issue of disappearing landlines, in Ohio and across the nation.

Guests

Michael R. Smalz, Senior Attorney, Ohio Poverty Law Center
Sherry Lichtenberg, principal researcher for telecommunications at the National Regulatory Research Institute
Jon Brodkin, Senior IT Reporter at ArsTechnica

This episode originally aired on Wednesday, April 8th, 2015 at 10:00 AM