2025 Preparing for Verizon’s Legacy Service Sunsets

Preparing for Verizon’s Legacy Service Sunsets

Tony:
Hello today is Monday, August 25^th 2025, I’m Tony Mangino from TC2 and this is Staying Connected.

If your organization still has legacy Verizon voice, non-IP IVR, or access services in your inventory, changes are coming — and they’re coming on a fixed timetable. Verizon has put out formal notice: these services are being retired, and customers need to move to alternatives well before the withdrawal date.

To unpack exactly what’s happening, how it fits into the broader industry trend, and what steps procurement leaders should take right now, I’m joined by our guest Bryan Carriker, a telecom strategy expert who’s been tracking these transitions for years. Great to have you here.

Bryan:
Thanks, Tony. This is one of those situations where, even if you’re not directly in network operations, it’s going to hit your desk from a procurement and contract management perspective. And the sooner you start, the more control you’ll have.

Tony:
Let’s start with the basics. What’s Verizon doing?

Bryan:
They’re modernizing their infrastructure by discontinuing a range of older, TDM-based services and moving customers toward IP-based solutions. The official reason is to “enhance capabilities and optimize network investments,” but the underlying driver is that legacy voice platforms are expensive to maintain and don’t deliver the scalability, redundancy, or integration potential that modern enterprise networks require.

Tony:
And this isn’t just about Verizon — the whole industry is moving this way.

Bryan:
Right. Fierce-Network recently ran an op-ed pointing out that the FCC has accelerated copper retirement rules, giving carriers more flexibility — and giving customers as little as 90 days’ notice before a legacy service is disconnected. Verizon’s plan fits right into that pattern. The shift to all-IP networks isn’t new, but we’re now at the stage where deadlines are hardening. 90 days is not enough time to pivot to a new solution. This is the first time I have seen Verizon post dates to sunset these services.

Tony:
Let’s hit those dates so nobody forgets them.

Bryan:
Two key milestones:

• September 1, 2025 — This is the sunset date. After this, Verizon will stop taking new orders for the listed services. No moves, adds, or changes for existing customers.
• On or after November 1, 2025 — The withdrawal phase begins. Verizon will start physically decommissioning those services. Once that happens, they’re gone.

And remember, Verizon says migrations take at least 60 days and sometimes a lot longer. If you’ve got a complex setup — multiple sites, integrated voice and data, call center dependencies — you’ll want to allow significantly more time.

Tony:
And if you think, “Well, they’ll probably extend the date,” you could end up in trouble.

Bryan:
Exactly. Treat the dates as hard deadlines. Plan backwards from them to set your procurement and project milestones.

Tony:
Walk us through the services Verizon is retiring.

Bryan:
Sure. There are three main categories:

1. Long Distance Voice Services — Interstate inbound/outbound, international toll-free options, intrastate long distance, LD Virtual VoIP (which is TDM-based), and Switched Digital Services. All being discontinued across all U.S. states, D.C., and territories.
2. Non-IP IVR Services — Older platforms like Hosted IVR, Enhanced Call Routing, Enhanced Voice Services, and NGSN. These are going away globally. Verizon is steering customers toward IP Contact Center (IPCC) with IP-IVR.
3. Local Services — ISDN PRI, Full T1, Digital PBX trunks, and Virtual Foreign Exchange in the 48 contiguous states and D.C. These are the access lines for a lot of on-premises PBX and call center systems.

And here’s a key point — if you’ve got toll-free or long-distance service riding on one of these circuits, it will be disconnected when the underlying circuit is withdrawn. It’s not just the “headline” service you lose — it’s anything dependent on that connection.

Tony:
So Verizon’s move fits into that broader wave of network modernization we’ve been hearing about for years.

Bryan:
Exactly. This is part of a larger telecom lifecycle: the industry builds out a technology, it reaches saturation, then eventually it’s replaced by something more efficient and capable. The difference now is the pace — we’re moving from gradual attrition to fixed retirement schedules.

Tony:
And that means procurement and IT teams have to think in terms of program management, not just service replacement.

Bryan:
Yes — this is as much about project governance as it is about technology.

Tony:
What does the migration path look like?

Bryan:
Check to confirm your business is using these services, contact your account team as soon as possible.

From Verizon’s perspective, they want to keep your business by moving you to IP-based equivalents — SIP trunking for voice, Ethernet or broadband access for data, IPCC for IVR. But you’re not locked in. This is a perfect time to review the market, see what other carriers or cloud providers can offer, and decide if you want to consolidate vendors or shift architectures. For example, some enterprises are using this as the tipping point to move from on-premises PBXs to UCaaS platforms.

Tony:
So the question isn’t just “what replaces this circuit” — it’s “what’s the right architecture for us in 2026 and beyond.”

Bryan:
Exactly.

Tony:

Thanks Bryan, certainly sounds like time is of the essence for certain Verizon customers with these legacy services.  To our listeners, if you would like to learn more about what Verizon’s notice might mean for your enterprise, or if you’d like to discuss other technology strategy, sourcing and cost reduction needs with Bryan, me, or any of our TC2 and LB3 colleagues, please give us a call or shoot us an email.

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