August 2, 2022
This is a date that you will want to mark down in your calendars. Why? This is the date when you may start asking “Can I still get a POTS Line?” This date is the beginning of the end of POTS Lines.
When the FCC instated order 19-72A1 to aid telecommunications providers in transitioning to digital methods of transmitting voice, they allowed carriers to stop maintaining the traditional analog lines – contributing further to the decline of POTS Lines now. That date was August 2 of 2022. What can you expect moving forward?
Rapidly Increasing Prices
As we stated in previous blogs, the cost of procuring analog copper lines for telephony equipment has risen dramatically as the number of users has fallen and the aging system required more maintenance, resulting in an increase in some areas of California of 458% since 2016.
For most of the country, the increase hasn’t been as stark, with the increase falling more in the 50% range, but either way, the price has gone up significantly. And will continue to do so until telecom providers entirely switch off the analog networks.
We can either absorb the costs or look for ways of reducing the overall expenses.
Increased Line Failures
While the analog lines are extremely reliable, they do have the potential for outages, and these outages have increased as the lines have aged. The aging infrastructure has made the lines more susceptible to significant weather events. Furthermore, a report by the California Public Utility Commission in April 2019 found that AT&T was consistently underfunding their analog lines while raising costs to create an increased inertia towards the migration off of the aging network.
Additionally, the report stated that: “Telephone service outages appear to be highly dependent upon weather conditions, specifically, the amount of precipitation in the area served. The strong relationship between rainfall and the rates of service outages provides a strong indication that the AT&T distribution network is not as robust as it needs to be, and lacks the resiliency to withstand significant weather events.”
The same can be said of areas on the east coast. After Hurricane Sandy in 2013 took down copper lines on Fire Island in New York, Verizon refused to repair the lines and instead would only replace copper connections with fiber. Moving forward, we can only expect more stories like this one.
Service Discontinuation and Migration
Some providers began issuing notices as early as March of 2021 with cut-off dates of July 31, 2021, giving users little time to migrate. Moving forward, we can expect increasing discontinuation of service notices as telcos push forward with their migration efforts.
How to Migrate from POTS Lines
Don’t be left wondering if you can still get a POTS Line moving forward. You can remove the burden easier than you think.
Full switchovers can involve a lot of time, effort, and cost, not to mention the potentially short time frame that you may have. Aside from this undertaking, there is an easier way that will not only transition your lines seamlessly but also can connect many extraneous devices on your network that connect across the same analog lines as your phones. This includes services such as:
- Fax
- Burglar and Fire Alarms
- Point of Sale devices
- Analog Modems
- And more.
The best thing about the POTS IN A BOX® device is that it can connect any of your existing equipment to the device for immediate access to digital lines and can be up and running in hours, instead of weeks and months.
Simplify the process of converting your analog devices to digital-capable devices before the end of POTS Lines. Get started today.
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