[GreenKeys] OT-AT&T wants to shut down POTS in favor of PANS -OT

[Don Robert House]

AT&T wants to shut down POTS in favor of PANS

Asks FCC for deadline so it can concentrate on expanding broadband

30 December 2009
NEW YORK - AT&T Inc told FCC regulators that it should set plans for  
phasing out older telephone networks if the government wants to make  
high-speed Internet access available across the country.

AT&T, the original U.S. phone network operator, described older voice- 
based "circuit switched" telephone systems and service as "relics of a  
by-gone era" in a filing with the Federal Communications Commission  
dated 21 December.

The company said that the government's goal of 100 percent broadband  
Internet access is in reach only if resources are moved away from  
"plain (ordinary) telephone service", known in the industry as POTS  
and the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN).  Newer up-to-date  
services are called PANS for "particularly attractive new services."

Otherwise "Congress's goal of universal access to broadband will not  
be met in a timely or efficient manner if providers are forced to  
continue to invest in and to maintain two networks," AT&T said in it's  
filing.

"Due to technological advances, changes in consumer preference, and  
market forces, the question is when, not if, POTS service and the PSTN  
over which it is provided will become obsolete," AT&T said.

More than 90 percent of the population has access to broadband,  
according to AT&T the country's biggest operator with expected 2009  
revenue of about $123 billion. It said that phone companies will  
continue to work to cover the rest of the country, but will need some  
encouragement from regulators.

AT&T was created in the late 19th century to build a communications  
network that would stretch across the United States, and became the  
dominant U.S. phone company.

It has gone through multiple changes since then, including a breakup  
in 1983-84, but remains the largest U.S. communications company by  
revenue.