[I_Am_Nous]

This is mentioned in the article, that home phone service is not even delivered by old copper wires anymore, but that's a good thing. Yes, it adds layers of complexity to provide phone over fiber (since now the fiber is pulling double/triple duty to give internet, phone, and cable) but not having to maintain separate physical plants is nice.

We have areas we provide DSL and phone service to which were underwater for months during the [0] 2019 Midwest US Floods. There are places where the buried lines are still fine for phone, but don't have nearly the signal resolution to handle even 5/1 DSL speeds. In those cases we switch customers to wireless supplied internet.

We have further areas where telephone pedestals are filled with 60 year old wires, which means the buried lines are likewise that old and can't offer much for speeds...it will be interesting to see what the true lifespan of fiber is because if you can build your plant out with fiber now, you won't need to bury anything new later on down the line. You just upgrade the boxes on the end of the fibers to something newer, hotter, with whatever technology replaces the distribution PON your current boxes run.

I also wonder how much value is left in abandoned, buried phone lines and if it would ever make sense to reclaim it at scale.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_Midwestern_U.S._floods