Service
POTS replacement, managed end to end
Copper retirement turns a telecom line item into a life-safety problem. We audit every analog line you own, replace only the ones that matter, and keep them supervised for as long as you need them.
The short answer
POTS replacement keeps analog lines working after copper retires. A managed POTS box presents real dial tone to your existing elevator phone, fire alarm DACT, or fax machine and carries the call over 5G/LTE or fiber to the public telephone network – with battery backup, continuous line supervision, and your original numbers ported over.
Why this became urgent
Carriers have spent a decade withdrawing from copper. The physical plant is expensive to maintain for a shrinking base of lines, and the regulatory obligations that once required carriers to keep it running have been steadily relaxed.
Buildings experience that withdrawal in two ways. Either a discontinuance notice arrives with a hard disconnect date, or the monthly rate climbs until a single elevator line costs more than an entire mobile plan. Both end in the same place: the line has to move.
What makes it urgent rather than annoying is what sits on those lines. Elevator emergency phones, fire alarm communicators, and vault alarms are not conveniences – they are code obligations with inspection consequences.
What actually changes
Stays the same
- The analog phone, dialer, or panel already installed
- Existing wiring back to the MDF or machine room
- Programmed monitoring center and auto-dial numbers
- Your published phone numbers, ported over
- Your elevator and fire alarm service contracts
Goes away
- The copper pair and its monthly tariffed charge
- Unsupervised lines that fail without telling anyone
- Per-state rate variation and annual price increases
- Carrier truck rolls for a line nobody will support
- Lines feeding equipment that was removed years ago
Scope
What the managed service includes
One monthly price covers the device, the connectivity, the monitoring and the paperwork. There is no separate professional services invoice waiting at the end.
Line audit and rationalization
We read the actual carrier invoices, map every line to the equipment it serves, and flag lines that should be disconnected rather than replaced.
Coverage validation per address
Signal is checked before hardware ships. Weak-signal sites get an external antenna, a different carrier, or the fiber transport option.
Managed hardware
Battery-backed 2-line and 8-line devices, shipped preconfigured and labeled, replaced under the monthly fee if they fail.
Number porting
Every retained number moves with the line, so monitoring centers, cab labels, and printed materials stay correct.
Cutover and verified testing
Alarm and elevator lines are tested through to the monitoring center with the account on test. Copper is released only after documented success.
24/7 supervision
Per-line dial tone, transport state, and battery health monitored continuously with alerts routed to the people who respond.
Consulting
Start with the audit, even if you never buy hardware from us
Most estates carry 10%–30% dead lines. Finding them is the highest-return hour of the entire project.
Line inventory
Every analog line on every account, mapped to a building, a room, and a piece of equipment – including the ones your carrier cannot explain.
Risk and compliance review
Which lines are life-safety dependencies, which are unmonitored today, and what an inspector will ask about each one.
Migration roadmap
A phased plan with cost per site, savings per site, porting lead times, and a sequence that fits your capital and inspection calendars.
At eight lines on one site the managed service runs $70/month – about $9 per line, against copper that commonly bills $75 to $150 a line. See the full pricing page.
By industry
Where these lines usually live
Elevator phone lines
Elevator phone line replacement swaps the copper POTS line feeding an elevator emergency phone for a managed device that carries the same analog signal over 5G/LTE or fiber. The elevator phone, dialer, and cab wiring stay exactly as installed, and the line keeps working through a commercial power outage on internal battery.
Fire alarm communicators
Fire alarm POTS replacement moves the copper lines feeding a DACT (digital alarm communicator transmitter) onto managed cellular or fiber transport. The panel keeps dialing the central station exactly as programmed, while the transport path is supervised and alerted on so a failed line is caught in minutes rather than at the next test.
Healthcare
Healthcare POTS replacement consolidates the analog lines a hospital or clinic still depends on – elevator phones, fire alarm DACTs, nurse call auto-dialers, blood bank and freezer alarms, and fax – onto managed cellular or fiber transport with 24/7 supervision, without touching the clinical devices themselves.
Retail and multi-site
Multi-site POTS replacement standardizes the analog lines in every location – alarm panels, elevator phones, fire lines, and back-office fax – onto identical managed boxes with cellular or fiber transport, one consolidated invoice, and one portal showing the state of every line in the estate.
Banking and ATM
Banking POTS replacement moves branch alarm lines, vault and duress circuits, elevator phones, and ATM dial-backup onto managed cellular or fiber transport. Signaling to the central station is preserved, paths are supervised continuously, and every cutover produces documentation suitable for audit and examination files.
Education
Education POTS replacement moves campus emergency phones, blue-light call boxes, elevator lines, fire alarm communicators, and portable-classroom lines onto managed cellular or fiber transport, keeping every safety line working and monitored while removing per-line copper charges from the district budget.
Hospitality
Hospitality POTS replacement moves the analog lines a hotel is required to keep – elevator phones, fire alarm communicators, pool and spa emergency phones, and house fax – onto managed cellular or fiber transport with battery backup and continuous monitoring, with no work inside guest rooms.
FAQ
POTS replacement questions
Go deeper
- What is POTS replacement?
- The FCC, copper retirement, and what it means for your lines
- Why your POTS bill tripled
- POTS replacement vs VoIP vs SIP: which fits which line
- Elevator phone lines: code, compliance, and cellular
- Fire alarm communicator line replacement
- POTS replacement cost breakdown
- How number porting works and how long it takes
- POTS-in-a-box buyer's checklist
Get a per-line quote in one business day
Send us a recent phone bill or a line count. We return a fixed monthly price, a cutover plan, and the savings math against your current copper.