Macon County residents who feared they would abruptly lose their landlines may be able to breathe a bit easier – at least for a few months.
Verizon said in a statement released to Macon Sense that no customer faces an immediate disconnection without an alternative, and those will be available to current landline customers in the future. The full statement is below.
Regardless, while the offer of new services may be an unwelcome reality for many locals, it appears to be the future for all.
“The discontinuation of landline phone service is part of a larger nationwide effort by all telecommunications providers to retire and decommission copper telephone and data services and has been an ongoing for many years,” explained Jeff Lee of the Macon County Broadband Committee. “This retirement effort has faced many regulatory challenges, but the current FCC administration is more friendly to this and is helping accelerate the process.”
What raised the alarm?
Frontier Communications of the Carolinas LLC began issuing notices to customers over the summer that it planned to discontinue copper-based networks connecting residences and businesses, including 9-1-1 emergency services.
The notices provided a range of dates, some as soon as September, alerting customers they would need to switch over to other available services, such as fiber optic lines or wireless phones, to continue connectivity.
Some customers on local Facebook groups claim they’ve been disconnected already.
The notices were sent as part of Federal Communications Commission requirements to inform customers of impending changes by Frontier, which was formally acquired by Verizon in January.
Frontier issued a public notice on August 7 stating it intended to retire the copper facilities at 41 North Carolina-based wire centers, including one in Franklin and one in Highlands, by November 16.
North Carolina customers were not alone in learning about this impending change. Over the past year, Frontier applied to the FCC to remove copper-based landline services in multiple states, including South Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, Florida, and Georgia, with varying dates of planned obsolescence.
“Copper infrastructure is many decades old, highly vulnerable to severe weather, and an increasing target for theft and vandalism,” the company told the FCC. “This network is not capable of supporting the robust, data-intensive uses that today’s customers demand.”
AT&T cited 215 incidents in North Carolina on lines it maintains in the first half of 2026. Verizon did not disclose its losses in North Carolina in the past year.
Frontier is following actions already taken by AT&T and other providers to phase out copper-based networks.
Do Macon residents have options?
Verizon claims that only 3% of its customers nationwide rely on copper-based lines. Recent surveys by the FCC say access to broadband is still lacking in many western North Carolina counties, including Macon. While users across the United States are less dependent on landlines, areas are still heavily concentrated in their reliance on these older technologies.
The company also says it can provide systems that will work with legacy home alarms and medical devices to ensure continued support to Frontier customers. In addition, the company will ensure customers can keep their existing phone numbers.
“Frontier has been installing fiber all around Macon County for the past couple of years,” noted Lee. “This was largely initiated by two grant awards they received through both the NC GREAT (Growing Rural Economies with Access to Technology) and CAB (Completing Access to Broadband) grant programs. We know that Frontier has invested more than three times the grant amounts of their own funding for this fiber expansion and our guess is that it will cover more than 20,000 residences and businesses.”
Lee said Frontier has not built “everywhere”, but most of their active construction work is complete for the moment. The company is focused on connecting customers to the newly constructed fiber as they must complete all of their state grant obligations before the end of 2026.
He also noted that while the companies don’t share raw numbers of those impacted by the conversion to fiber, denser population areas have more options.
“Residences and businesses in and around Franklin, Highlands, and the major corridors will of course be impacted the least, as many if not most in those areas already have fiber or cable available from one of four providers,” said Lee.
The Verizon statement
In its response to Macon Sense, Verizon said options will be made available while promising to not leave any customer “behind”.
“As we transition from legacy copper to modern networks, we are committed to ensuring no customer is left behind. Our customers’ home phone service is not going away. Receiving an initial notice simply marks the beginning of a multi-step regulatory process and does not mean immediate service disconnect. Furthermore, if a suitable replacement is not yet available, we will not discontinue a customer’s copper voice service.
For the very small percentage of impacted customers, we are providing seamless transitions to ultra-fast fiber or an alternative service that offers a traditional landline experience—including the use of existing handsets, battery backup in the event of power outages, and full E911 support—powered by our award-winning wireless network.
We are committed to ensuring that customers remain connected as we transition from a 100-year-old copper network to the faster, more reliable technologies of the 21st century. Our goal is to provide every community with the resilient, high-speed infrastructure required for today’s world while maintaining the essential safety features that our customers rely on.”
According to Verizon and Frontier, customers do not have to take further action at this time. Frontier plans to contact customers with updated information on new timelines and replacement service options over the coming months.
What if fiber is not available?
Another service provider, Charter Communications (Spectrum), applied for an FCC Rural Digital Opportunity Fund grant in 2022 to extend alternate services in some areas of the county.
“Charter did begin construction in Macon last spring, but from our latest communication they do not anticipate completing their fiber build in Macon until late 2027,” said Lee.
As a result, he said, if neither Frontier nor one of its potential competitors like Charter have been able to extend fiber, broadband, or alternate wireless services to a residential neighborhood, Frontier will continue its copper-based landline services until an FCC-approved system becomes available.
Some customers could choose to move to other options, like the Starlink system, which provides voice over internet protocol communication using satellite-based systems.
Doug Dowds, president of CCG Consulting, said the Starlink alternative can have downsides, because it assumes customers live in a place “where they don’t have to cut down a bunch of trees or put up an expensive tall pole to receive service.”
He said it would mean replacing a $30 landline bill with a $130 Starlink bill. Even then, a customer has to be sophisticated enough to subscribe to a WiFi calling service through a web connection and worry about losing 9-1-1 when power goes out.
Local leaders seeking solutions
Southwestern Commission Executive Director Russ Harris reached out to North Carolina’s Division of Information Technology to learn more about the planned discontinuation of landline services and is looking at how this may affect local seniors.
Warren Cabe, Macon County manager, said the county has some active copper landlines and is evaluating options to convert these systems as part of the discontinuation.
“This will not affect communications between 9-1-1 and responders,” he said.
One thing is certain. Change will be coming as the fiber network and wireless options expand over the county.
For more information on Verizon’s modernization effort and how it will impact Frontier customers long-term, go to https://www.verizon.com/copper/.
