There are a few options for keeping POTs going in 2024 – but those with existing POTS line services today should still take an aggressive approach to phasing them out.
Despite the massive shift to VOIP over the last 20 years or so, Plain Old Telephone Service (aka “POTS”) delivered over copper lines continues to serve a purpose in enterprise telecommunications. As of last year, the FCC estimated that there were still more than 40 million POTS lines in use within the United States alone.
Why POTS Survives
The continued use of POTS lines is driven by a number of factors:
- Long-standing challenges related to using VoIP for fax
- Specialty use cases for analog lines that require high reliability and local PSTN handoff, such as alarms, point-of-sale systems, paging systems, monitoring systems, and elevator phones
- Local access to 911 call centers
- Backup access to network devices for remote management
- Remote site calling survivability in the event of a network outage
- Support for small branch offices with minimal telecommunications needs
However, the POTS line market continues to shrink (from a high of more than 120 million lines). As such, most carriers no longer want to offer such services, preferring instead to focus on VoIP or wireless communications. Recent deregulation in the US, along with retirement mandates in Europe, are either increasing the cost of POTS lines or raising the prospect of full decommissioning. As reported earlier this year by CNN, AT&T has applied to the California Public Utilities Commission to allow it decommission its remaining POTS lines, currently serving almost 600,000 residential and business customers. None of this is new. Previous NoJitter posts by Aaron Storeman and Phil Edholm in 2022 raised the alarms for telecommunications managers and encouraged proactive action to prepare for rising costs, and to evaluate alternative approaches. Still, large numbers of POTS lines remain in use as telecom managers haven’t found suitable alternatives, are comfortable paying the rising cost, or haven’t taken the time to develop a POTS migration strategy.
New Options For POTS Replacement
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