For most of us, the very concept of the analog phone line lives in the distant past, with corded phones having long since gone the way of dial-up modems, VCRs, and CDs.

Yet POTS – plain old telephone service transmitted over copper wires, Alexander Graham Bell’s gift to humanity – has quietly lasted well into the digital age, serving as the communication medium for elevators, fire alarms, printers, security systems, and more. Until now.

The end of an era

Starting this August, the FCC will no longer regulate POTS lines – meaning that carriers are free to raise prices, stop offering support for them, and ultimately cease offering the service altogether. This has been a long time coming, with prices already having risen significantly in the last decade-plus as copper-line maintenance costs and challenges have mounted for carriers. With the reins coming off now and phone companies eager to transition their remaining POTS users to digital services and decommission the lines, it’s the industry-wide expectation that prices are set to skyrocket – potentially by 300-500%.

Naturally, this presents a significant financial risk to businesses that are still using those copper lines. It also presents a significant operational and business continuity risk if not addressed, given that these services touch a number of critical areas of the enterprise. However, with POTS lines now intentionally noncompetitive on price versus today’s digital offerings, there is a major opportunity for businesses to realize significant cost savings by migrating to newer, cheaper, and more capable services.

Since doing so takes time, the pressure is on for companies to act now, especially if your old telecom contracts are expiring and/or new ones are in the works.

Taking action

For companies with active POTS lines, the first order of business is taking stock of the current state – inventorying existing services and determining their costs. When doing the latter, don’t forget to include taxes in your calculations, as local exchange carrier (LEC) services, which include POTS, are among the most highly taxed telecom products.

Next, determine the technical requirements (including bandwidth, security, and latency) to support all your existing lines – including fire alarms, elevators, lobby phones, printers, fax machines, POS systems, and so on. You may find that some of these lines can be retired; others may need or benefit from more functionality.

It’s also important to consider the impact of a POTS solution on your relationships with suppliers. These services are often committed contractually, and they often contribute substantially to certain thresholds that drive rates and discounts on a broad range of services. Migrating and removing POTS services could come with unintended but substantial financial consequences if those considerations aren’t factored into your replacement strategy.

Finally, we come to the migration process – that is, choosing a platform and a vendor to move from POTS to VoIP, LTE, etc., and ultimately making the change. In doing so, it’s vital to keep your timeline reasonable and realistic, taking into account your contractual obligations so as to avoid any early termination fees. And since some business processes that rely on POTS lines may be affected, it’s prudent to ensure that you build in plenty of lead time to make a smooth transition.

Moving forward

With so much potential for risk exposure stemming from POTS line retirement – not just high costs, but also downtime, loss of critical services, infrastructure challenges, and physical security issues – a thoughtful assessment and a plan to transition have rapidly become absolute musts.



Fortunately, as with most technological shifts, there is a fantastic opportunity to reposition in a way that sets your organization up for long-term success. Your POTS replacement strategy can generate savings of 50% or more while serving as a catalyst for a more comprehensive assessment of your network environment as a whole.