--- title: "Your POTS Lines Are Going Away: A Fax Migration Guide | T38Fax Blog" description: AT&T can start shutting off copper lines in 18 states on November 15. What it means for fax machines, how to keep your fax numbers, and what to do first. image: https://blog.t38fax.com/hubfs/featured-image-pots-lines-going-away-1200x630.png --- [Skip to main content](https://blog.t38fax.com/your-pots-lines-are-going-away-a-fax-migration-guide#blog-content) [![T38Fax](https://www.t38fax.com/images/Logo_Large.svg)](https://www.t38fax.com/) - Who We Serve - [Enterprise Fax Servers RightFax, HylaFAX, GFI FaxMaker](https://www.t38fax.com/solutions/enterprise-fax-servers/) - [Voice Service Providers T.38 offload for ITSPs & UCaaS](https://www.t38fax.com/solutions/voice-service-providers/) - [Business Fax Connectivity ATAs, IP-PBXs, fax machines](https://www.t38fax.com/solutions/business-fax-connectivity/) - [Our Solution](https://www.t38fax.com/power-t38/) - [Why T38Fax](https://www.t38fax.com/why-t38fax/) - [Pricing](https://www.t38fax.com/pricing/) - Resources - [Compatibility List T.38-certified devices & setup guides](https://www.t38fax.com/compatibility/) - [Knowledge Base Setup guides, FAQs & troubleshooting](https://helpdesk.t38fax.com/hc/en-us/) - [Blog Fax technology & industry insights](https://blog.t38fax.com/) - [Security & Compliance HIPAA, SOC 2, encryption options](https://www.t38fax.com/security/) - Company - [About Us Our story and team](https://www.t38fax.com/about-us/) - [Testimonials See our customer reviews](https://www.t38fax.com/testimonials/) - [Partners Reseller & integration partnerships](https://www.t38fax.com/partners/) - [Contact Us Sales, support & general enquiries](https://www.t38fax.com/contact/) - [Careers Open positions at T38Fax](https://www.t38fax.com/careers/) [Customer Portal](https://my.t38fax.com/) [Start Free Trial](https://my.t38fax.com/signup) - Who We Serve - [Enterprise Fax Servers](https://www.t38fax.com/solutions/enterprise-fax-servers/) - [Voice Service Providers](https://www.t38fax.com/solutions/voice-service-providers/) - [Business Fax Connectivity](https://www.t38fax.com/solutions/business-fax-connectivity/) - [Our Solution](https://www.t38fax.com/power-t38/) - [Why T38Fax](https://www.t38fax.com/why-t38fax/) - [Pricing](https://www.t38fax.com/pricing/) - Resources - [Compatibility List](https://www.t38fax.com/compatibility/) - [Knowledge Base](https://helpdesk.t38fax.com/hc/en-us/) - [Blog](https://blog.t38fax.com/) - [Security & Compliance](https://www.t38fax.com/security/) - Company - [About Us](https://www.t38fax.com/about-us/) - [Testimonials](https://www.t38fax.com/testimonials/) - [Partners](https://www.t38fax.com/partners/) - [Contact Us](https://www.t38fax.com/contact/) - [Careers](https://www.t38fax.com/careers/) - [Customer Portal](https://my.t38fax.com/) [Start Free Trial](https://my.t38fax.com/signup) [All Posts](https://blog.t38fax.com) Tech Tips # Your POTS Lines Are Going Away: A Fax Migration Guide [Josh Primiano](https://blog.t38fax.com/author/josh-primiano) · November 4, 2026 [Post](https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fblog.t38fax.com%2Fyour-pots-lines-are-going-away-a-fax-migration-guide&text=Your+POTS+Lines+Are+Going+Away%3A+A+Fax+Migration+Guide) [Share](https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fblog.t38fax.com%2Fyour-pots-lines-are-going-away-a-fax-migration-guide) On November 15, AT&T can begin disconnecting copper phone service for about 90,000 business and residential customers in 18 states. The FCC approved the request in January, and more filings are moving through the same process. If your office still has fax machines plugged into wall jacks, some of those lines are likely on the list. Fax is the line most offices forget about until it stops working. This guide covers what's changing, what the replacement line usually does to fax, and the steps to take before a notice lands on your desk. ## What's Happening to Copper Phone Lines Carriers have been retiring copper for years, but 2026 is when it started moving quickly. In March, the FCC adopted its Network and Services Modernization Order, which made it faster and simpler for carriers to stop selling copper service and then discontinue it. Notice windows are shorter than they used to be. AT&T's largest approved batch so far covers parts of wire centers in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Wisconsin. Service there can be discontinued on or after November 15, 2026. An earlier batch has been eligible since June 30, and AT&T plans to retire its copper network by 2029. Verizon, Frontier, and Lumen have their own retirement filings, and Lumen has [stopped selling and renewing business voice](https://blog.t38fax.com/what-lumen-s-voice-exit-means-for-your-fax-lines) altogether. The date on a carrier's notice is the deadline that matters for your site. If you haven't received one, it may simply not have arrived yet. ## Why Fax Lines Get Missed Alarm panels and elevator phones get attention during copper retirement because they're life-safety equipment. Fax machines don't. They sit in a back office or a supply closet, plugged into a jack nobody has thought about in years, and they keep working right up until the line goes dead. The machine is the easy part to replace. The number is harder. Your fax number is printed on referral forms, letterhead, and payer and vendor records, and changing it means reaching every one of the people who send you faxes. The good news is that you don't have to change it. Fax numbers can be ported to a new carrier like any other phone number. ## What the Replacement Line Does to Fax When a copper line is retired, the carrier usually offers a replacement voice service, often a VoIP line or a wireless device. Those services are built for phone calls. Many of them carry fax the same way they carry a voice call, as audio over the G.711 codec. That works on a clean connection and breaks down when the connection isn't clean: pages drop partway through, calls connect but nothing arrives, and the support advice is to slow the fax machine down and try again. Fax over IP works reliably when it runs over T.38, the ITU standard built for faxing over internet connections, on a carrier that handles T.38 properly. We explain the difference in [Business Fax Connectivity](https://www.t38fax.com/solutions/business-fax-connectivity/). ## Three Ways to Keep Faxing ### 1. Keep your fax machines with an adapter and a T.38 SIP trunk An analog telephone adapter (ATA) plugs into your network on one side and your fax machine on the other. It converts the fax call to T.38 and sends it over a SIP trunk built for fax. Your staff use the same machine the same way, and your number moves with you. For an office with two fax machines, an ATA like the Grandstream HT812 can serve both from a single trunk. Our [Compatibility List](https://www.t38fax.com/compatibility/) covers every ATA we've tested, each with a setup guide. ### 2. Move your fax server onto a T.38 SIP trunk Higher-volume offices often run a fax server such as OpenText RightFax, HylaFAX Enterprise, or GFI FaxMaker on phone lines or a PRI. Those servers support T.38, so the server can connect straight to a SIP trunk and the copper goes away without changing how anyone sends a fax. See [Enterprise Fax Servers](https://www.t38fax.com/solutions/enterprise-fax-servers/) for how that works. ### 3. Switch to a hosted cloud fax service You can also retire the fax machines and fax from email or a web portal. For low volume with no equipment worth keeping, it's often the simplest choice. The trade-offs are that your documents are stored on the provider's systems and your workflow changes. Hosted services are often priced per page, so run the numbers carefully if your volume is high. We compared the options in [What Is Cloud Fax? Three Models Compared](https://blog.t38fax.com/what-is-cloud-fax-three-models-compared). ## What to Do Before the Notice Arrives 1. **Inventory every line.** For each copper line, write down the number, the location, and what it connects to. Fax lines, alarm lines, and elevator lines all need different plans. 2. **Start the number port early.** Porting fewer than 10 local or toll-free numbers to T38Fax typically takes four to six business days, and larger ports get scheduled with our porting team. Porting is free. Keep the copper line active until the port is complete. 3. **Plan for power.** A copper line carries its own power, so a fax machine on copper keeps working through a building power outage. An ATA and your internet router don't. If faxing has to keep working through an outage, put the ATA, the router, and the fax machine on a small battery backup (UPS). 4. **Test before the cutoff.** Set up the new line alongside the old one and send real faxes before you depend on it. Our free [ECM self-test](https://foip.t38fax.com/ecm-self-test) also shows whether a line is passing faxes with error correction. ## Where T38Fax Fits T38Fax is a carrier built for fax over IP. We run our own T.38 stack, offer Error Correction Mode (ECM) on every call, and our support team diagnoses fax problems from protocol traces. Our team has worked with fax over IP since 2002, and our porting team handles the number moves for you. If your copper lines are on a retirement list, [see how POTS replacement for fax works](https://www.t38fax.com/pots-replacement-for-fax/), or [start a 30-day free trial](https://my.t38fax.com/signup) and test it on your own fax machines before the cutoff. [Tech Tips](https://blog.t38fax.com/topic/tech-tips) Ready to fix your fax? 30-day free trial. $25 credit included. No contracts. 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