No, Dorothy. You are not in Kansas anymore.
For many businesses, the rapid changes in technology, such as FCC Order 19-72A1, can feel like being in the middle of a tornado trying to find solid ground. And once the skies are clear, you find yourself in the middle of Oz, where nothing looks or feels the same and you have to find your way home.
As the central purpose of the FCC Order 19-72A1 are POTS lines we wanted to try to clear the skies surrounding the POTS lines at the center of the order.
POTS Lines = Traditional Telephone Lines
POTS Lines are to the more recent VoIP technology like black and white TV is to technicolor.
They provide the same service (I.E. sharing your favorite show, calling your grandma) but how you experience them has changed. For many of us, the change is not immediately apparent. The way you interact with the phone probably didn’t change. Many VoIP solutions still used the standard desktop phone and any change in how you communicated was behind the scenes. Your fax machine just worked (until it didn’t), and your alarm system automatically connected with the contact center and sent timely alerts. You probably didn’t even think about the fact that the elevator in your building also used the same network as your phones to provide emergency assistance if it was ever needed.
POTS Lines are everywhere. EVERYWHERE. This is why the FCC Order 19-72A1 on POTS Lines is quite extraordinary.
When you hear POTS Lines referred to as the lifeblood of the telephone network, it would be about right. Without the physical connection from the phone, to the switch, and then on to the next phone there would be no call.
With POTS lines, the FCC Order 19-72A1 gave the go-ahead to the telcos to stop maintaining these lines, they essentially gave the brain permission to stop sending signals to the rest of the body.
Now we don’t tell you this to cause panic or fear, but simply to impress upon you the extraordinary nature of this order and to make you aware of the significance of the FCC Order 19-72A1 for POTS Lines so you can prepare ahead of time and not be surprised when your analog lines stop working.
When will FCC Order 19-72A1 for POTS Lines go into Effect?
The official date on the order for the retirement date is August 2, 2022. But we all know you won’t go to bed on August 1 and wake up on the 2nd with no working POTS Lines. Telcos have already been working on phasing out this service, and some areas (such as more rural areas that rely heavily on POTS Lines) are still years away. However, you have most likely seen your business communications expenses over traditional POTS lines skyrocket over the last few years, as the reliability has faded. Line breaks, whether natural (I.E. squirrels) or man-made (I.E. accidents, line cuts while digging, etc) have increased. And as these events continue to occur, and telcos opt not to repair the lines, it is only a matter of time before every line has been retired and our only options are digital means of transmission.
But the good news is, this doesn’t have to be a costly or disruptive event for you. Devices like DataRemote’s POTS IN A BOX ®. The POTS IN A BOX ® device is an LTE/Cellular/Wi-Fi/PSTN/FirstNet-capable router that can enable many combinations of legacy analog wireline including:
- In-band Voice
- M2M
- Data
- DTMF
- Analog Data Modem Tones
- Fax
- and Alarm System Signals
No, Dorothy, we aren’t in Kansas anymore but Oz isn’t turning out to be so bad either is it?
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