Overview

• The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) identified 19% of phone lines at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) as unused or duplicated in a recent audit.
• DOGE canceled 198 inactive lines in one hour, securing $100,000 in annual savings for OPM, which represents 0.1% of federal agencies.
• Extrapolating from OPM’s audit, DOGE estimates up to $100 million in annual waste across the federal government due to inactive phone lines.
• Elon Musk reposted DOGE’s findings on X, drawing national attention to government inefficiencies and the broader implications for telecom providers.
• Declining landline usage, with only 2% of U.S. adults relying on them exclusively, highlights the shifting telecom landscape and potential impacts of such cost-cutting measures.