By the 1980s, party lines were removed in most localities. They were not supported by new technologies and subscriber-owned equipment such as answering machines and computer modems. Meanwhile, the electro-mechanical switching equipment required for their operation was rapidly becoming obsolete, supplanted by electronic and digital switching equipment. The new telephone exchange equipment offered vertical service code calling features such as call forwarding and call waiting, but often was incompatible with multi-party lines. Party lines in the United States were also ineligible for Universal Service Fund subsidies, leading telephone companies to convert them to individual lines to benefit from these subsidies.