As carriers sunset copper lines, moving your existing devices that rely on POTS to VoIP, a dedicated IP network, or cellular is imperative. This can save you significant fees.

Inventory Management

In retail, inventory management controls stock by reducing inventory and ordering only what is needed to satisfy demand. This increases efficiency and decreases costs such as storage, handling, transportation fees, insurance and employee salaries. It also reduces the risk of overselling products and waste from carrying unsold inventory. As carriers sunset POTS lines and analog voice infrastructure, many sites must move critical services like elevator phone lines and fire alarm lines to a dedicated IP network or cellular. This ensures a smooth POTS transformation with minimal disruption to your business and provides multi-path redundancy for uninterrupted service. The entire solution is UL certified for fire safety and is NFPA compliant, eliminating the need for any compliance delays or rip/replacement of infrastructure.

Network Design

Few technologies have had the staying power of the humble analog copper line. But it’s time to let go of this legacy technology. With major carriers retiring copper phone lines, organizations should have a POTS transformation strategy that will allow them to transition to an alternative solution offering more flexibility and cost savings. The first step in a successful POTS replacement strategy is inventorying existing services and determining what is and is not dependent on these lines. Then, a network designer should be engaged to help design and implement a replacement solution for the most critical lines. These may include fire alarms, point of sale, fax lines, elevator call buttons and other business-critical hardware. A POTS aggregator can provide the right solution and contracting vehicle for businesses that want to stabilize costs immediately. This can be a simple way to consolidate multiple local exchange carrier services into one solution and take advantage of bulk pricing discounts and vendor consolidation. A hybrid approach might be necessary for customers with more complex network architecture and reliant on legacy equipment.

Identify Your Technology Requirements

As copper lines depreciate, organizations must review their current infrastructure to determine how best to transition to a new solution. While a POTS line might still work for a legacy fax machine or an old point-of-sale device, most businesses rely on them for more vital functions like fire and alarm systems, elevator lines, and e-911. Conducting a needs assessment can help you identify immediate savings opportunities by identifying new lines that can be turned off and setting you up to transition to the right service to keep important devices running. This is especially important as major networks are beginning to sunset their copper networks and raise prices, making it more difficult to justify a costly copper replacement.

Implementation

In the pre-POTS era, human operators were required to switch circuits (plugging callers’ and receivers’ wires into a patch panel to connect them). This involved navigating complex interexchange networks, requiring large investments from carriers and passed along to consumers. The major carrier’s phasing out of POTS lines is forcing many organizations to review their POTS line inventory and plan for the future. There’s never been a better time to consider future-proof alternatives, with new consolidation plays and cost-relief options now available. One of the most effective ways to stabilize your costs immediately is to consolidate your business phone lines through a POTS aggregator. This involves leveraging bulk pricing discounts, vendor consolidation and more to create an immediate cost savings opportunity for your organization. Then, you can take the next step and migrate to a best-in-class POTS transformation solution. This includes a hybrid architecture that digitizes analog phone services while providing resilient connectivity and plug-and-play simplicity. This enables a more modern, scalable and secure solution than the legacy technology used before it.

Monitoring

The old copper lines that run the phones and life safety devices in hospitals, offices, retail spaces and other facilities must be replaced with something else. But doing so can be prohibitive, especially with carriers jacking their rates through the roof. POTS replacement solutions are IP-based so that all new services can be managed and monitored remotely. This means a technician can resolve 99% of issues without needing to be dispatched, reducing costs and downtime for all clients. The system is also NFPA and UL-certified, eliminating compliance delays and providing visibility to service usage. The solution can even be used as a backup in the event of primary connectivity failure, leveraging cellular data to keep critical business functions running.

Optimization

While plain old telephone service may sound simple – sending signals over a wire – the infrastructure required is complex. Calls move across multiple locations on a grid of mechanical buildings and parts like copper lines, switchboards and towers. This aging physical infrastructure is expensive; carriers pass these costs on to customers. Meanwhile, digital options don’t require the same infrastructure and are far less costly.

The first step to addressing your POTS sunset is figuring out what you need and why, then finding the best solution. 

Jane