Plain Old Telephone Service, or POTS, is headed for a “copper sunset.” This presents a huge challenge for anyone maintaining mission-critical safety and security devices – such as fire alarm panels, elevator phones, building entry systems and bluelight safety phones – that rely on a copper-wire analog phone line.

Carriers are also dramatically increasing monthly rates for business POTS lines, while reliability is declining, as they struggle to support POTS infrastructure on a declining revenue base.

Clinton Fitch of Ooma will explore copper sunset in detail and describe POTS replacement solutions – including Ooma AirDial – that avert the costly and complicated “rip and replace” of devices that rely on analog phone connections. The good news: The right POTS replacement strategy will immediately reduce monthly costs and make it easier to manage connections for devices moved off copper lines.

• Copper-wire phone lines, also known as Plain Old Telephone Service or POTS, are going away. This is a challenge for anyone maintain mission-critical safety and security devices – such as fire alarm panels, elevator phones, building entry systems and bluelight safety phones – that rely on a POTS connection.
• Carriers providing POTS are raising rates dramatically, even as reliability declines, because the revenue stream to support POTS infrastructure is drying up.

• POTS replacement solutions can preserve equipment that requires an analog phone line, while immediately reducing monthly service costs.
• Not all POTS replacement solutions are created equal. Look for solutions that provide all the required hardware and services in a single package, are easy to install and can be remotely managed.