SHARONVILLE, OH — If you have older parents or grandparents, chances are they still use an old school landline phone.
But that will soon change, whether they want it to or not.
It's the result of an FCC order in August 2022, which states that local phone companies are no longer required to provide or support landlines.
Many are now dropping support of their old copper lines to homes.
Altafiber is continuing support for now, but that could change in the near future.
One Sharonville, Ohio man, however, is already feeling the impact; Richard Slater's landline doesn't work.
"The line is dead and has been dead five weeks," he said.
These days, most of us would simply use our cell. But Slater is a disabled resident of a retirement home, Cottingham Community in Sharonville, Ohio.
He has an old flip cell phone, but says it has terrible reception in his room. And that's a concern.
"I need to get in touch with a lot of doctors and hospitals," he said.
Slater says the problem is that the home's managers have told him that no company supports his landline anymore. When the phones break, there is no way to fix them.
"They tell me mine cannot be fixed until a whole new phone system is installed," he said.
Companies no longer servicing old copper lines
It's going to get tougher and tougher in the coming months for anyone to get help fixing a broken landline.
That's because it doesn't matter whether you have a landline with a cordless phone, or grandma's old phone on the wall. Either way, phone companies are phasing them out.
Slater's friend Linda Handley worries about him, and possibly other residents, not having a phone.
"For their own safety they need one," she said.
We contacted Cottingham's manager, who told us they hope to have a new company soon that can provide support and keep their landlines working.
Until then, they are offering Life Alert-type emergency alert systems at no charge to residents without a working phone, she said.
9-1-1 emergency issues being addressed
One of the biggest concerns with the end of wired phones is what happens if you need to call 9-1-1 from your cell phone. Typically, they don't give your precise location.
So as landlines go away, lawmakers like Ohio State Senator Kent Smith are pushing for what's called Next Gen 9-1-1 systems, to help people like Slater.
That way, a 9-1-1 cell phone call will give an exact location of the caller.
"Next Generation 9-1-1 has the ability to use routing technology so we will have the ability to know where the call is coming from," Smith said.
Phone and cable companies like AltaFiber and Spectrum, meantime, now offer voice over internet (VOIP) phones as landline replacements, and the FCC requires them to give locations to 9-1-1.
The latest voice-over internet phones feel and sound just like landlines, and offer the same 9-1-1 capabilities as the old copper landlines.
That'll be a help for older relatives like Richard Slater, so they stay safe and you don't waste your money.
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