Speedy Cutover Service, SXS switching cutover to ESS filmed live at Glendale CA central office, 1984

The central office switch that a landline is connected to is almost certainly doing analog/digital conversion. Digital switches were introduced in the 1970s and Analog exchanges were all but extinct by 2000 (according to [4], the last step by step exchange in Canada was replaced in 2002). If the call remains old school POTS, it will be essentially a T1/PRI call from that point on. Circuit switched digital calling was phased in over time, as CO switches were replaced. Chances are, a landline is actually handled by a remote terminal out in the field, and a/d converted there. Long distance (to most destinations) calling probably switched to digital trunks faster than local calling, because long distance calling was already separate equipment from local calling, and replacing central office switches is a big process (including a pretty intense cutover [1]). Long distance calling would have more equipment in the path than a local call, of course, and may not have had very optimal routing paths compared to today. I found a route map from the 1960 AT&T Long Lines network [2], and a fiber map with no provenance of 'today' [3] ... it's widely similar, but there's some routes that pop out at me as not being well connected in the 1960: Salt Lake City to Seattle; Amarillo, TX to Dallas, TX. On the other hand, Long Lines was radio, and radio is faster than fiber, so that makes up a little. There may have also been more cases where routing was simplified to be more manageable at the expens