Needing a landline will soon be a thing of the past ... BT's digital network biz noticed it wasn't paying out enough Openreach tells El Reg it'll kill off copper sales in 118 UK locations next year. Verizon prefers a “gradual phase-out” according to Tom Maguire, Verizon’s senior vice president of operations support. The UK’s telecoms networks will undergo substantial change in the coming years, as the companies that run them upgrade their technology. In 2000, almost every U.S. household had a landline phone. Verizon is asking the FCC for permission to retire copper networks throughout its service territory in New York, Massachusetts, Maryland, Virginia, Rhode Island and Pennsylvania. Telecom giant AT&T is looking to unwind its age-old landline business by 2020. Until recently cloud tech has been focused at the enterprise level for fancy startups or mega-corporations. The Illinois General Assembly passed a bill July 2 that could allow AT&T to phase out its landline services in the state, but the FCC has yet to approve the law. In recent months the company has asked to kill copper in hundreds of exchanges in those states. But the phone company's estimated 1.2 million landline users won't be disconnected immediately. Interference may also pose a problem, depending on the quality of the landline's replacement. The landline is a shining example. Half that many rely on over-the-air antenna television for video content. The main change is that we simply shift your connection from the local exchange to your roadside cabinet, which turns your landline calls into a signal the new network can understand. Just like the transition from Freeview to Netflix, and CDs to Spotify, landline phones are soon to be phased out and become a thing of the past. According to the CDC , more than 50 percent of American households now exclusively use wireless phone service. 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