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[Commentary] AT&T is done with its copper telephone network and copper DSL business, according to its CEO and chairman Randall Stephenson.

The company believes that an all-IP network is the path to more profitable future. Given the millions of subscribers that are dependent on the copper telephone lines and copper DSL products, AT&T has offered a $14 billion fringe benefit for those customers and the regulators who will likely balk at the idea of AT&T stopping its investment in copper. For those worried about losing their access to communications, AT&T said with the new investment, its LTE network will reach 300 million people or 99 percent of the U.S. , while its wireline U-Verse network will expand to cover 75 percent of the current customer locations — or 57 million people.

The premise being that the remaining 25 percent of its customer territory will subscribe to LTE broadband, which comes at a much higher cost and has onerous caps that DSL access and AT&T phone lines do not have. Essentially those living in rural areas are screwed when it comes to broadband, with Stephenson saying that he believes that in an IP age, wireline broadband will still be profitable in markets of “reasonable density.” He further went on to say that “The best service is delivered through an IP-only service with a streamlined product set,” which clearly doesn’t include copper telephone lines and DSL. This news will have huge ramifications for Americans in rural areas as well as those who still rely on their wireline copper-based telephones for burglar alarms, emergencies and fire alarm systems. Competitive local exchange carriers in many regions will be wondering how they will continue to offer their products over AT&T’s copper pipes.

But it’s clear that AT&T is running from copper like I’d run from a PR person waving a social media pitch, so now it’s up to the Federal Communications Commission to take a hard look at what the loss of copper means for consumers and for the marketplace. As AT&T moves forward we need to look at who is left behind.

[Commentary] AT&T is going all-in on IP – the Internet Protocol, and cutting the cord with its past. Instead, it will push newer, faster broadband via a hybrid of fiber-and-copper technologies. And what that means is end of the line for classic DSL. Nothing wrong with it.

The smartphone is now a developed market. The tablet is newer, but is clearly catching on with consumers as more companies create products to compete with the iPad. So at this stage, how are tech analysts looking at the market?

Gartner predicts that 1.2 billion “smart devices” will be sold next year, up 50 percent from this year. (To savor that number, here is this fact from Gartner: 821 million smart devices — smartphones and tablets — have been sold in 2012. That’s about 70 percent of all devices sold to consumers in 2012.) Horace Dediu, who writes some of the smartest analysis of the mobile market on his Asymco blog, is starting to think about the late adopters of smartphones. He notes that comScore has declared that half the cellphones in use in the United States are smartphones. He thinks the fast conversion of late adopters to smartphones will continue. Mary Meeker, the technology analyst who is now a Kleiner Perkins partner, made a presentation that predicted that by the middle of next year the number of smart devices in use would surpass PCs.

Smartphones have overtaken laptops as the biggest users of Wi-Fi networks as society moves from part-time to full-time connectedness.

According to a recent survey from Informa Telecoms and Media and noted by The Register, 40 percent of all hotspot connections are made by smartphones; nudging just past the 39 percent of laptop connections. Although the tablet market is young, it already accounts for 17 percent of Wi-Fi connections, says the Informa study. Surely some of these results are powered by the fact that smartphone sales have surpassed those of computers and tablet sales are starting to catch up as well. More smartphones than laptops in use, for example, certainly add to more potential hotspot connections for handsets. What else is driving such behavior? The cellular industry moving away from unlimited data plans has to be a big factor here.