Everything You Need
To Know About The
2022 Network Refresh
Still using Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS) or copper lines? It's confirmed that carriers will stop supporting Centrex, DSS, T1, PRI, and POTS starting early 2022 and you will see the price for your services increase by up to 4x or go away completely.
Upgrade your services for voice or data NOW to avoid service disruptions.
What Do You Need To Know?
POTS stands for Plain Old Telephone Service. POTS and Centrex are analog voice transmission line that are implemented over copper wires and have been in use since the 1880’s. The FCC estimates there are about 36 million active POTS/Centrex lines in the United States. Due to the increased cost of maintaining these lines and general lack of support, the FCC has mandated that major providers, such as Centrex, terminate POTS lines starting in early 2022.
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Three Common Pain Points Of POTS:
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Cost
Most FAX, elevators, emergency call boxes, and alarm systems utilize POTS lines to perform their functions. Each of these are required to have a separate Copper POTS line to work. If customers are paying around $65 per line, 10 lines adds up very quickly.
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Lack Of Monitoring
POTS Lines don’t provide the benefit of modern-day monitoring or remote management. Therefore, unless you are actively trying to use the line you or your IT personnel won't know if something goes wrong. These lines also require regularly scheduled maintenance checks which is an additional expense for your business.
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Insufficient Support
Copper POTS lines have been around since the 1880s. Over the years it has become harder to find companies that can work on and maintain POTS lines. Costs are quickly rising due to the lack of support out there. There are very few quick-fix options if your lines were to go down, making outages last much longer.
Digital transmission circuits such as, Digital Switched Service (DSS), T1 Lines, and Primary Rate Interface (PRI), will also start to be terminated in early 2022. You will see your carriers begin to decommission them making the costs for you go up hundreds of dollars a month. DSS, T1, and PRI are going to eventually reach end of life and have to be replaced.
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What Customers Will See During Decommission:
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Aggressive Timelines
To replace copper networks, carriers will need to order, design, engineer, and install new services over IP/Fiber for their customers. Do not put your company at risk by waiting until the last second to replace your services for voice or data. cpITelecom is here to help simplify your migration.
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Notification Will Be Inconsistent
Carriers are not doing a good job at informing customers that their POTS, DSS, T1, and PRI will be going away. In many cases customer that receive a paper invoice will only get a notification as a bill insert. However, if you do not get paper invoicing it is very likely you will miss the notification all together. cpITelecom is here to help you proactively assess your situation and help you avoid service disruptions.
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Decommission Will Affect All Carriers
The telecom network is a maze of cable systems! Did you know that each carrier sells and leases services to other carriers? Meaning that the decommission of the copper network affects everyone. This situation puts all carriers and their customers at risk of getting caught in the middle of the copper network decommissioning. Now is the time to determine what to do moving forward.
How Can cpITelecom
Help You?
At cpITelecom, we are dedicated to simplifying your business, strategizing with you on how best to build or replace your network, and lending our expertise in advancing the evolution of all your technology needs. We are partnered with over 40 carriers, which allows us the flexibility to find the right solutions for your budget and business needs.
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cpITelecom offers hosted/premise/hybrid solutions for business communications that move beyond traditional voice and networking capabilities for a fraction of the cost. Let us help you upgrade your POTS lines.
