The time to act is now; this is the year to replace your older POTS lines.

The History of POTS

Plain old telephone services (POTS), have taken many forms since 1876, with older generations first knowing them as the landlines found in homes. However, by the mid-2010s, many organisations began moves to reduce their reliance on POTS, which was fuelled by the shift to VoIP, as well as the expectation that carriers would eventually retire their expansive networks of maturing copper lines.

Businesses first began by moving their copper line services to other forms of technology, such as DID on the PRI, eFax, SIP, or IP-based technology. At the same time, they found not all services worked well with VoIP. Those requiring an analog dial tone remained on POTS lines (including those mandated by law), such as faxes, alarms, point-of-sale devices, elevators, and e-911.

What this meant was by 2021, as POTS lines were no longer being support, many organisations found themselves still stuck with POTS lines for business-critical voice and fax services, but without an attractive alternative solution in sight.

Why It’s Time to Cut the POTS Cord

Cutting POTS can significantly cut your costs.

While the POTS in action may seem easy, as it’s essentially transmitting signals over a wire, the infrastructure required to support the communication is intricate. Calls made on POTS lines move across multiple places on a grid, traveling through mechanical buildings and parts like copper lines, switchboards, and towers. This aging physical infrastructure, which can be affected by weather-related outages and needs regular maintenance, creates costs for carriers, which is passed on to customers. Alternatively, digital lines don’t require the same investment as physical lines, making them less costly. On average, MetTel often is able to provide an immediate 30% reduction in fees when clients shift their POTS lines to digital solutions.

POTS’ Longevity is Coming to an End

Due to the complexity of upkeeping POTS infrastructure, many carriers have announced their plans to discontinue support for copper lines. Recently, major carriers like Verizon, AT&T, and CenturyLink have set dates to retire their POTS support. However, with many organisations still relying upon POTS to run their fax lines, alarms, point of sale, and elevator call buttons, they may soon find themselves in a difficult position. Without a POTS transformation strategy in place, healthcare facilities will no longer have access to fax machines, office high rises with no access elevator emergency lines, and brick-and-mortar stores without security or fire alarms to protect their goods.

A Reliable Alternative for POTS Comes to the Rescue

MetTel has developed a new solution, POTS Transformation, to provide a long-term path forward for organisations who still rely on POTS for their business-critical applications. MetTel provides a fully-managed service and support with deployment to replacement, as MetTel manages the entire migration process to ensure a seamless transition.

MetTel POTS Transformation offers:

• Turn-key deployment, including managed equipment and professional installation
• Business continuity, even during network outages
• Ongoing management from 24/7/365 US-based NOC monitoring & support
• LTE/5G connectivity for new locations and wireless backup services for existing location with broadband access.

Why POTS Transformation

MetTel’s on-demand webinar provides more information about the MetTel POTS Transformation network, deployment and installation process, as well as technical specs. Plus, we discuss real-world results, including a case study from a healthcare client who is receiving a 40% savings from migrating their POTS lines to MetTel’s solution.

Tags: POTS, telephone, VoIP