How many landlines are in service in 2025?
It's true that landline usage has been decreasing in favor of VoIP and other technologies—but landline telephony is not going away anytime soon.
Here's the data on landline usage and the rate at which it's being replaced around the globe.
The Current State of Landline Usage
The public switched telephone network (PSTN) reached its peak in 2006 when there was a global total of 1.22 billion lines in service.
Since then, an average decline of 6% per annum has set in. There was no respite in 2024, with the PSTN subscription total dropping by 16% in 12 months to end the year at 407 million.
Of the 225 countries and territories covered by TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database, only 17 had higher PSTN penetration rates at the end of 2024 than they did back in 2005. Of the 208 others, 161 experienced double-digit percentage point reductions over that period.
Looking ahead, by 2031, the PSTN is forecast to shrink to fewer than 250 million lines in service globally, about one-fifth of its 2006 peak.
VoIP Passes PSTN
While mobile substitution has curtailed opportunities for growth in the fixed voice market, an additional reason for the waning of PSTN voice telephony is the relatively strong take-up in voice-over-IP (VoIP) subscriptions.
The total number of IP-based voice subscriptions surpassed those connected via the PSTN for the first time in 2024, increasing 9% year-over-year to approximately 447 million.
PSTN Fading Fast
VoIP Subscriptions Up 9% in 2024
Source: TeleGeography's GlobalComms Database
TeleGeography forecasts that by end-2031, VoIP lines will outnumber PSTN lines by almost 300 million. Global VoIP household penetration will stand at 21% by that date, while only 10% of households will still have PSTN telephone connections.
France, Japan, Germany, and Portugal were among the countries at the vanguard of VoIP take-up. At the start of 2025, all four had VoIP penetration rates exceeding 75%, and each is expected to reach a VoIP penetration rate of more than 90% by the end of 2031.
By that date, VoIP penetration will surpass PSTN penetration in 145 countries and territories.
Overall Lines Down 2%
Despite the growth in VoIP, the combined PSTN and VoIP subscriptions total declined by 2% in 2024 to 854 million, and is forecast to drop by an annual average of 1.1% per year between now and 2031.
Fixed voice penetration is declining across all regions, except Africa, where it's remained stable at around 9%-10% for several years. Individual pockets of growth remain; North African countries, such as Algeria and Egypt, both registered annual growth of 6% in 2024, while other notable increases were seen in Gabon (up 23%) and Mali (up 15%).
Nevertheless, household penetration in Africa appears to have already peaked at just 16% in 2008.
Downward Trend
Penetration Dropping Almost Everywhere
Source: TeleGeography's GlobalComms Database
Elsewhere in the world, only India, Egypt, and Mexico saw their combined PSTN+VoIP subscription bases grow by more than 500,000 in 2024, with India's total increasing by 23% to over 39 million. Growth is being driven by the take-up of bundled fixed broadband and fixed voice services.
On the other hand, the U.S., Russia, China, Brazil, the U.K., Japan, and Colombia each experienced declines of more than 1 million fixed voice subscriptions in the 12 months leading up to December 31, 2024.
The Move to All-IP
It will be decades before the PSTN disappears from all corners of the world, but the trend toward VoIP is inexorable.
In the U.S., for example, in January 2025, AT&T confirmed plans to begin the process of discontinuing legacy fixed voice services in around 25% of its wire centers. The telco now plans to shut all copper-based services nationwide (except for California) by the end of 2029.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) no longer requires U.S. telcos to provide copper landline services.
In the U.K., meanwhile, BT had plans to switch off remaining PSTN circuits by 2025, but later revised this to 2027.
Although wary of cannibalizing an existing revenue stream, telcos are growing increasingly keen to dismantle the PSTN and embrace all-IP networks.
IP networks are cheaper to maintain, they allow a wider variety of services such as IPTV, and infrastructure vendors are beginning to discontinue support for legacy equipment.
Data on Mobile Markets, Fixed Broadband, and More
At TeleGeography, we're the telecom data people—the experts from whom industry leaders get their data. You can get more analysis like this (and the data behind it) with a subscription to TeleGeography's GlobalComms database.
Pete Bell
Pete Bell is a Senior Analyst for TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database and also contributes to the daily CommsUpdate newsletter. He has a particular interest in wireless broadband and was responsible for TeleGeography’s 4G Research Service until it was integrated into GlobalComms.
