As telecommunications networks rush to improve their technology, AT&T has taken steps to start wiping out landline phone service for a small segment of its customer base.

In January, the Federal Communications Commission started permitting phone companies to implement "experiments" designed to convert people away from old, circuit-switched phone networks, The Wall Street Journal reports.

As a result, AT&T is trying to gain approval for new guidelines that would start with forbidding new customers in Carbon Hill, Ala. and part of Delray Beach, Fla., from obtaining old-school landline service.

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Instead, new and existing customers would utilize broadband service, cell phones or a traditional phone that connects to a router-like box, according to The Journal. The box is powered by electricity and sends signals to cellphone towers.

The initial part of AT&T's plan could approved by June, the Journal reports. Restructuring the whole AT&T service in the two cities could take several years, as regulators will have to approve each plank of the plan.

So landline service isn't going away anytime soon, but the trend may be headed in that direction.

Kaitlin Pitsker of Kiplinger's Personal Finance offers several reasons why you shouldn't abandon your landline service.

"Going landline-less means directing . . . calls--from your credit card company to your doctor’s office--to your cell phone, which could increase your monthly wireless bill," she writes.

"Landlines are still more reliable than their wireless counterparts, including VoIP (voice over Internet protocol) service, particularly during bad weather and home emergencies."

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