Your Landline Can Go Dark This Sunday. East Texas Towns Are on the List.

Your grandmother's kitchen phone might stop working this month. Not because she forgot to pay the bill. Because the company that runs the wire got permission to shut the wire off.

Plain English

AT&T asked the Federal Communications Commission for permission to stop selling old copper landline service, the kind people call "POTS," in parts of 18 states. Texas is one of them. FACT.

AT&T's own application says the service can be discontinued "on or after November 15, 2026." That is this Sunday. FACT.

The application covers about 90,000 customers across all 18 states. FACT.

Broadband Breakfast reported that the FCC automatically granted the application on January 12, 2026, under its streamlined process. DOCUMENTED INFERENCE.

Verizon, which now owns the old Frontier lines, filed its own Texas notice on August 7, 2026. It says Verizon will retire the copper in 274 Texas wire centers, with work starting on or after November 6, 2026. FACT.

KBTX and KLTV reported that Verizon's customer notices put the end of copper landline service on or after November 16. DOCUMENTED INFERENCE.

Is your town on the list?

These are wire centers. A wire center is the area served by one local phone office. It does not follow city lines, so a house outside town can still be inside one. A listed name means part of that area, not every home in it.

East Texas wire centers in AT&T's filing: Longview-Judson, Marshall, Tyler Chapel Hill, Owentown, Mineola, Mount Pleasant, Atlanta, Wills Point, Edgewood, San Augustine, Timpson. FACT.

East Texas wire centers in Verizon's Texas notice: Kilgore, Gladewater, Gilmer, Hallsville, Henderson, Whitehouse, Big Sandy, Hawkins, Jacksonville, Rusk, Quitman, Winnsboro, Canton, Van, Ben Wheeler, Grand Saline, Emory, Turnertown, Pine Mills, Mount Vernon, Sulphur Springs. FACT.

That is a lot of East Texas.

Why it matters

A copper landline gets its power from the phone line itself. When the lights go out, the old corded phone can still work. KLTV reported that. DOCUMENTED INFERENCE.

AT&T's replacement is called AT&T Phone Advanced. It runs on AT&T's cellular network. AT&T's notice to customers says it "does not provide line power." FACT.

It has a built-in battery that lasts up to 24 hours on standby. A spare battery costs $89 before tax. FACT.

And here is the line every family needs to read twice. AT&T's own notice says that if the device has no electric power and no battery power, "the AP-A service will not work, including emergency 911 service." FACT.

The same notice says the backup battery will not power other equipment like medical and security monitoring systems. FACT.

Twenty four hours.

Think about the last ice storm that rolled through here. Think about how long your road was dark.

The receipt

• AT&T Section 63.71 application to the FCC, filed December 1, 2025, copy provided to the Florida Public Service Commission, Document No. 15393-2025. Lists the Texas wire centers by name and code, the November 15, 2026 date, about 90,000 affected customers, and the customer notices. FACT.
• Verizon public notice of copper retirement, Texas, ID 2026-03-A-TX, dated August 7, 2026. Lists 274 Texas wire centers. Says Verizon will stop offering service over the copper and stop maintaining it. FACT.
• Verizon's notice also says it "may require customers" to move off the copper "well before" the implementation date. FACT.
• AT&T told KLTV that 1% of its customers still use copper landlines. Verizon put its share at 3% nationwide. DOCUMENTED INFERENCE.
• AT&T told WTAP that "no customer will be left without access to voice or 9-1-1 service." DOCUMENTED INFERENCE.

What Ryan says

RYAN STATEMENT.

I am not against new technology. Copper is old. It gets stolen. It breaks. I get it.

But 1% of a big company is not 1% of a small East Texas road.

The folks still on a copper line are not doing it to be stubborn. A lot of them live where the cell signal drops at the end of the driveway. A lot of them are older. Some of them have a medical alert box sitting by the phone.

Those are the people this change lands on first.

So I want three things on the record.

One. Tell East Texas families, in plain words, which homes are affected. Not a list of wire center codes in a federal filing.

Two. Tell us what happens on day two of an outage, when the 24 hour battery is dead and 911 does not work.

Three. Our state leaders and the Public Utility Commission should ask those questions out loud, in public, before the copper comes down. Not after.

Same phone line our parents trusted. Opposite rule when the power goes out.

What this does not prove

It does not prove your home will lose service on Sunday. November 15 and November 16 are the earliest dates, not a shutoff date for every customer.

It does not prove the replacement service is bad. The FCC treated AT&T's replacement as adequate. DOCUMENTED INFERENCE.

It does not prove anyone broke a law.

What it does prove

It proves the companies' own papers name East Texas towns.

It proves the replacement phone needs electricity or a charged battery to call 911.

It proves the decision was made in Washington, by paperwork, and most families found out from a letter.

The bottom line

Check your phone. If you have a landline, call the number on your bill and ask one question: is my line copper, and is my area on the list?

Then check on the older folks on your road. Ask the same question for them.

The record does not lie. Read the filing.

Do not threaten anyone. Do not harass anyone. Do not contact anyone in my name. Read it. Share it. Send receipts, evidence, witnesses. Put eyes on the record.