How many Americans still have landlines as AT&T wins legal battle
While the vast majority of Americans live in wireless-only households, the legal battle of telecommunications giant AT&T in California has sparked concern among customers, particularly those in rural areas, who continue to rely on landline services for emergencies.
AT&T won a significant regulatory victory last week in its long-standing effort to phase out traditional landline phones in California and modernize its services, potentially clearing the way for the telecommunications giant to discontinue its phone lines from June 2027.
However, earlier this year, the Rural County Representatives of California warned that such a move could leave hundreds of thousands of Americans in the state with limited access to vital phone services that crucially enable them to contact 911.
According to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) National Health Interview Survey, almost 20 percent of American households nationwide used landline services in 2024 alongside wireless phones, while 0.9 percent relied on landline services only—which equates to about 3 million people.
The update has sparked wider debate about the importance of maintaining landline services, particularly for those living in rural areas, where a phone signal may be less reliable. Traditional phone lines can also remain operational during power outages and other disasters when cellular networks potentially lose service.
For elderly residents and lower income households, the loss of landline access could remove an important communications lifeline.
Newsweek has contacted AT&T and Rural County Representatives of California for comment via email outside regular working hours.
Why Did AT&T Pull Landline Services in California?
The Federal Communications Commission approved a petition from AT&T last week that allows the company to give up its status as the state’s carrier of last resort—a designation that required AT&T to offer telephone service, usually a landline, to any customer requesting it.
AT&T has spent years trying to move customers away from what it describes as an “inefficient” copper-wire network and toward fiber, wireless and internet-based services.
The company has also said that only about 3 percent of households in California still use its landline service. AT&T also cited increasing costs associated with maintaining aging infrastructure and responding to copper theft and network outages as reasons for wanting to end the service.
It added that it would ensure “no customer loses access to voice or 911 service” as part of this update. “We’re taking a thoughtful, phased approach to upgrade customers,” the company continued in its May statement.
Who Still Relies on Landline Services in the US?
The CDC’s 2024 data shows that Americans who continue to rely on landline services tend to be older, live in certain regions or have a household income of less than 100 percent the federal poverty threshold.
Adults aged 65 and older are significantly less likely to be wireless-only than younger Americans. Between 85 to 89 percent of U.S. adults in each age grouping below the age of 44 in the CDC’s dataset relied exclusively on wireless phones in 2024, while 57.9 percent of seniors did.
Meanwhile 4.3 percent of seniors relied on landlines only, while less than 1 percent of Americans in each other age category were in the same boat.
Geography also mattered. Residents in the Northeast appear to be the least likely to be wireless-only, with 65.6 percent relying solely on mobile phones, compared with more than 80 percent in the Midwest and South. Those living in the Northeast also had the highest proportion of adults whose phone status was “mostly” landline use—at 3.8 percent.
Household income was another key factor. Those with a household income of less than 100 percent of the federal poverty threshold had the highest proportion of adults with landlines only—at 2.6 percent. Meanwhile, 0.9 percent of adults with an income of greater than 200 percent the federal poverty threshold relied on landlines alone.
Although it is clear that most Americans do not rely on only their landlines, the CDC’s findings suggest millions of Americans—particularly low-income Americans, seniors and those in certain rural areas—still depend on their landline services, highlighting why the debate over AT&T’s proposed phaseout has sparked so much concern.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: John Fitzpatrick and Shakeema Edwards.
