In a response to an FCC request made earlier this month for input transitions plans to IP-based communication network and to extend high-speed Internet broadband to the entire country, the telecom giant AT&T has filed a request to US regulatory authorities to waive a requirement that it and other carriers maintain costly landline networks, thereby for phasing out wireless service.

AT&T claims that with the emergence of new broadband and IP services, the business for the public switched telephone network and other legacy telephone service have been the hard hit. With the outdated product, rising cost and falling revenues has made the business unsustainable, it added.

Recent data shows that with the emergence of cell phones and Internet communications such as VoIP, a mere 20% U. S households now rely on landlines for the voice service, while a quarter of the Americans have done away with them completely.

With numerous advantages of wireless service over old telephone service, POTS provide a dedicated network even during natural calamities and other emergencies.

AT&T and other POTS providers are now under increasing pressure to drop the obsolete and unprofitable service and fall in-line with the emerging trends, and focus on the universal broadband and IP communications of the future.