AT&T asks FCC to grandfather private line voice service in BellSouth territory

AT&T asked the Federal Communications Commission for permission to shut down its BellSouth Analog Voice Grade Private Line services in the Carbon Hill (Alabama) serving wire center and in the Kings Point (Florida) serving wire center, marking another step in its TDM-to-IP transition.

After it gets regulatory approval, the service provider said it would discontinue offering this service in its IP-Trial wire centers in February. As a legacy TDM-based service, BellSouth Analog Voice Grade Private Line provides an analog channel for the transmission of asynchronous, or synchronous serial data at rates of up to 19.2, 50.0, or 230.4 Kbps. AT&T also offers optional arrangements for this service at 18.74 or 40.08 Kbps. Since there's no demand for the service in the Trial Wire Centers for this service, AT&T said that local businesses would not be "impaired by the grandfathering of this service because there is no customer demand for this service." In its place, it offers a set of IP-based replacement services that provide the same functionality over a more flexible architecture.