Illinois
As AT&T plans to end landline service in Illinois, here’s why, a looming deadline and more
In a sign of changing times, AT&T, the nation’s largest wireless provider, will be switching from traditional landlines in favor of a more modern option.
Customers have received letters explaining the utility will be pulling the plug on landlines in March of 2027 across Illinois. AT&T previously announced its intention to eliminate copper-based phone services across all of its service areas in the United States by 2029.
The phasing-out process will take multiple years, a spokesperson said, and no customers will be left without access to voice or 911 service.
While the company claims customer interest has dipped in recent years, others maintain there’s still a need for traditional landlines.
Here’s what you need to know about the upcoming chance, what opponents say and how the replacement option will work.
What is happening and why?
The utility is phasing out landline use and upgrading its copper-based service to “newer, less expensive options ” including fiber optic networks.
According to AT&T, orders for traditional landline voice services have decreased 96% since 2014 and less than 2% of eligible customers are still using the legacy landline technology.
Citizens Utility Board response
The Citizens Utility Board, which opposes the shift, said the organization is of the belief that “there are still a significant number of people–many of them AT&T’s longest-standing and most loyal customers–who could benefit from the reliability and affordability of traditional phone service.”
“Traditional landline service was once the most reliable and affordable option for many customers who just wanted no-frills phone service,” Communications Director Jim Chilsen said. “It is sad and frustrating how AT&T in recent years has increased the price of traditional landline service, pushing many customers to more expensive and less reliable options–and now the phone giant is ending the service altogether.”
What is replacing traditional landlines? How does it work?
A digital home phone service that operates similar to a traditional landline – AT&T Phone — Advanced, also called AP-A, is offered at a comparable or sometimes lower cost, a company spokesperson said.
Customers who make the switch can keep their existing number and can even use their current hone, according to AT&T. It also works with a number of other technologies, including fax machines, alarms, elevators and medical monitoring devices.
Unlike the traditional landlines, AP-A uses AT&T’s wireless network and allows customers to stay connected during an outage by tapping into broadband connection as a backup, the utility explained.
OAK PARK, Ill. (WLS) — About 500 furloughed employees of West Suburban Medical Center have received notices that they will not be returning to their jobs, marking the latest development in the uncertain future of the hospital as its owners continue negotiating a settlement over its future.
ABC7 obtained multiple copies of a letter sent to employees stating there would be “a mass layoff at West Suburban Medical Center” beginning Aug. 31 and that “this mass layoff is expected to be permanent.”
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West Suburban Medical Center CEO Manoj Prasad told ABC7 the notices were required under the Illinois Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification, or WARN Act, which limits furloughs to six months and requires advance notification before a permanent separation.
Prasad said the hospital’s plans to reopen have not changed, but there is still no firm reopening date.
Sylvia Williams, a former head of nursing at West Suburban Medical Center, said staff knew layoffs were a possibility but hoped they would not become necessary.
SEE ALSO | Exit strategy? Settlement negotiations underway over future of Oak Park safety-net hospital
The notices come amid an ongoing court battle between West Suburban Medical Center owners Prasad and landowner Rathnaker Patlola. The two sued each other in the weeks following the hospital’s closure in March.
ABC7’s I-Team was in court Tuesday for a hearing on progress toward a settlement agreement involving the hospital. During the hearing, attorneys representing Resilience Healthcare did not mention layoffs.
Sources close to the settlement discussions told the I-Team the notices are “a big deal” and that Prasad “had not consulted with anyone” about plans to permanently lay off the remaining furloughed employees.
One source also told the I-Team that the judge was surprised by the news and “upset” it was not disclosed.
Patlola issued a statement saying, in part, that he was “surprised and disappointed” and that employees “deserved far better.”
Settlement negotiations over the future of West Suburban hospital remain ongoing.
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A Springfield Township man who was on parole for engaging in a sex act during a Facetime call with two children is now facing public indecency charges, police said.
Police said Leon D. Sims, 44, was seen masturbating June 25 at the Barnes and Noble at the Bridgewater Falls Shopping Center in Fairfield Township.
Sims has a history of similar offenses and is listed on the National Sex Offender registry.
He was charged with public indecency in 2011 after being accused of exposing his genitals to a library employee in Cincinnati.
In 2016, Sims was arrested for masturbating in a public place in Cincinnati. Three years later, he was accused of similar conduct in front of children near a Franklin County high school.
His most recent parole violation is related to a 2021 offense, in which he masturbated in front of two young girls, 9 and 15, over a Facetime call. One of the victims realized what was happening and recorded the call, which was later used as evidence.
Sims also recently spent time in federal prison for coercing a woman into prostitution and transporting her to Ohio, Kentucky and California, according to court documents. Prosecutors said that Sims forced the woman into prostitution “countless times” over a period of months between 2020 and 2021.
In a sentencing memorandum from the 2021 case involving the Facetime call, prosecutors said it was “well within the realm of possibility” that Sims had committed the crime to groom the 9-year-old girl into prostitution. They added that he was operating his sex trafficking business two weeks before he exposed himself on Facetime in front of the two girls.
According to prison records, Sims was no longer in federal prison custody as of September 2024.
Sims was convicted in Hamilton County in February 2025 of disseminating matter harmful to juveniles in the Facetime case. He was paroled from state prison in November 2025.
Sims had no attorney listed in court documents at the time this story was published.
This story may be updated.
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