Copper Landlines Are Going Away. Is Your Business Ready?

For decades, business phones ran on copper landlines, often called POTS lines (“plain old telephone service”). Today, major carriers across the country are retiring their copper networks, and many businesses are receiving discontinuation notices or watching their landline bills climb. If your office still depends on copper lines, now is the time to plan the move, before a notice forces a rushed decision.

What still runs on copper?

Voice lines are only part of the picture. Many businesses also have copper lines supporting:

• Fax machines
• Alarm and fire panels
• Elevator emergency phones
• Card terminals and older point-of-sale systems
• Door entry and gate systems

A simple plan for the transition

1. Take inventory. List every phone number and line, and note what each one is connected to. Your phone bill is a good starting point.
2. Move your voice service to the cloud. A hosted PBX phone system replaces copper voice lines with internet-based service and adds features like a mobile app, voicemail to email and automatic failover.
3. Keep your phone system if you like it. If you have a newer on-site phone system, SIP trunking can replace the copper lines behind it without replacing the system.
4. Go digital with fax. Digital fax service lets you keep your fax numbers and send and receive faxes by email or online.
5. Plan for alarm and elevator lines separately. These life-safety lines have their own requirements. Talk with your provider and your alarm or elevator company about approved replacement options before disconnecting anything.
6. Keep your numbers. Your existing local and toll-free numbers can be ported to your new service.

We can help

Advanced Hosted Services helps businesses move off copper lines with a clear plan, number porting and live 24×7 support. Request a quote or call 1-833-467-8331 to review your lines with our team.