There's a feeling in the market that fixed-line telephony has its days numbered. The idea makes sense if you look only at the copper line that rang at your grandmother's house — that one, yes, is being switched off. But confusing the end of copper with the end of voice is the mistake that will make many an ISP lose money.
What is dying — and what is not
In 2025, the agreement reached at the TCU sealed the end of the fixed-line telephony concessions: Oi and Vivo are now allowed to decommission the copper network. This is the "end of fixed-line telephony" that becomes a headline. Except that switching off copper doesn't erase the need to talk — it merely transfers the service to whoever knows how to deliver it over IP.
Voice doesn't disappear. It changes medium — from copper to IP — and changes owner: from the incumbent to the regional ISP.
So much so that fixed interconnection remains economically relevant even with the decline of traditional STFC. The plumbing is still there; what changes is who charges for the water.
Who takes over the customer the giants leave behind
That vacuum lands in the lap of a specific group — and it's probably yours. Regional ISPs aren't bit players: they are the biggest force in broadband in Brazil.
Notice: this isn't about winning a new customer. It's about selling more to the base you already have. Every internet subscriber is a natural candidate for telephony and PABX — and the copper shutdown only accelerates that migration. Especially in the smaller municipalities within Oi's concession area, where the customer will be left with no voice alternative from the historic operator.
Why voice isn't going anywhere
- The law requires it. The SAC Law requires a telephone support channel — no company of any size gives up a number.
- B2B demands it. Call centers, collections, telemedicine, retail and public agencies run on voice. Corporate PABX and toll-free lines have no worthy substitute.
- Regulation is investing. No one creates STIR/SHAKEN (anti-fraud attestation), portability and DETRAF for a dying product. On the contrary: they are signs of a market worth protecting.
- The market is formalizing. The number of operators at Anatel reached around 18.8 thousand with the review of the licenses — competitive voice is organizing itself, not vanishing.
What changes for your pitch
The practical lesson is about positioning: stop selling "fixed-line telephony" — the term carries the stigma of copper. Sell voice revenue and IP communication. The product is the same phone number that has always existed, delivered over a modern infrastructure (softswitch, SIP, multi-tenant) that gets smarter every year: AI-powered IVR, call authentication, full integration with your operation.
Whoever buys the narrative that "fixed-line is over" will leave the game and abandon a set table. Whoever sees further will grab the voice revenue the incumbents are, literally, switching off.
Sources: Anatel — Pequenas operadoras na banda larga fixa (2T2025); Anatel — Relatório de Competição 3T2025; Anatel — Balanço 2025.