Phone lines will change over next few years

August 20, 2013 at 9:24a.m.

AT&T plans to change copper lines locally with more versatile fiber

At AT&T, it’s out with copper wires, in with fiber optics

YOUNGSTOWN

Change is coming in the telecommunications industry, but the hope locally is it will be smooth enough that people won’t see it.

AT&T is in the midst of a project to replace its copper phone-line system with fiber-optic lines, said Adam Gryzbicki, president of AT&T Ohio.

“Hopefully this will occur smoothly enough that customers won’t notice it,” he said.

The change from copper wires to fiber wires is similar to the change in television from analog to digital, Gryzbicki said.

“It will provide a better customer experience,” he said.

The shift to fiber wires has to happen based on customer preferences, Gryzbicki said.

“Changes have to be made to meet the needs of modern consumers,” he said. “There are limitations to the copper wire.”

With the new fiber wires, AT&T will be able to increase the speed of its Internet offerings and use the same wires to offer home-phone service and the company’s U-verse cable television packages, Gryzbicki said. The change should be done by 2015.

AT&T can’t continue to rely on copper home-phone service because only 25 percent of consumers continue to have that service, he said.

In fact over the 22-state area in which AT&T operates, more than 70 percent of customers have made the transition from traditional service to phone or other services that are Internet-based, said Sarah Briggs, public affairs director for AT&T Ohio.

“Customers are making their own choices to go wireless,” Gryzbicki said.

Many consumers have only a cellphone, he said.