A new service from Dallas-based AT&T offers customers the ability to use their traditional landline phones with upgrades to meet the needs of a more modern world.

Called AT&T Phone – Advanced, the new residential service provides customers with an alternative to traditional landline service. It’s now available in Dallas-Fort Worth—one of the first areas in the country to get the new service.

An AT&T spokesperson told Dallas Innovates that while the company continues to provide traditional landline service, AT&T Phone – Advanced “is an alternative to traditional home phone service,” offering “similar or better functionality” while operating on the company’s “reliable wireless network or on any broadband connection.”

Many haven’t joined the cell phone-only bandwagon

AT&T said that more than 70% of adults and 80% of children in the United States live in households that only use wireless phone service, citing the CDC. In Texas, usage of landline phones among AT&T customers has decreased by 41% in the last two years.

The company said that some people keep the 150-year-old landline technology for nostalgic reasons or as a second point of contacting people.

Per AT&T, the new service’s notable features include:

• The ability for customers to keep their existing phone number and even use their old telephone equipment.
• “Reliability”: By using a wireless connection or a broadband connection as a back-up, customers can stay “seamlessly connected” during an outage. The service’s hardware also has a back-up battery to keep it powered for up to 24 hours.
• “Cost-effectiveness”: AT&T Phone – Advanced does everything a traditional landline does but at a comparable or lower cost, the company says.
• Security: The services offers the ability to detect and block robocalls.

Customers get two ways to connect to the service.

For cellular connection, Phone – Advanced uses the AT&T cellular network to provide voice service. Customers must be sure to place the provided hardware device “on the first or second floor near a window or outside wall,” the company says.

The service also works with “most” broadband connections. Customers can use their current modem with the provided AT&T hardware device. If the AT&T cellular network connection is unavailable, they’ll stay connected via broadband, AT&T says.  The company advises customers to keep the device in a convenient location—”not in a closet, basement, or other hard-to-reach location.”

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