POTS line replacement for businesses nationwide
We sell business VoIP and POTS replacement nationwide, and in the Bay Area we replace the lines ourselves on our own network. Before we quote, we review your analog lines for free.
What replaces each analog line, and what changes on the bill
Two lines on the same bill can cost very different amounts to replace, because the price follows the job each one does and what your building has to supply for it. To find out which of these you have, start with what a POTS line is and how to spot one.
| Equipment on the line | What replaces it | What it needs from the building | What changes on the bill |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fire alarm control panel | A supervised path to the monitoring company: a communicator or a cellular unit | A network drop or cellular signal at the panel, backup power, and a test window | One or two line charges end; a monitoring path charge or device replaces them |
| Elevator cab phone | A cab phone on a digital or cellular path | A path to every cab, backup power, and your elevator contractor’s sign-off | The line for each cab, or each group of cabs, ends |
| Fax machine or multifunction copier | A ported fax number, an analog adapter, or email-to-fax | A network connection, and one analog port if the machine stays | The line charge ends; if the machine is gone, just cancel it |
| Intrusion alarm communicator | A digital or cellular communicator, fitted by the alarm company | A path your panel model supports, and a monitoring test | The line charge ends, though the alarm company may add a fee |
| Entry callbox or gate phone | A network callbox, a cellular unit, or a hosted number | Power and a path at the gate | The line charge ends; new cable out to the gate costs extra |
| Legacy modem in a card terminal, tank monitor or controller | An IP connection, or an analog adapter if the equipment cannot change | Word from the equipment vendor on what it supports: start here first | The line charge ends, unless the equipment works only on copper |
Fire alarm control panel
- What replaces it
- A supervised path to the monitoring company: a communicator or a cellular unit
- What it needs from the building
- A network drop or cellular signal at the panel, backup power, and a test window
- What changes on the bill
- One or two line charges end; a monitoring path charge or device replaces them
Elevator cab phone
- What replaces it
- A cab phone on a digital or cellular path
- What it needs from the building
- A path to every cab, backup power, and your elevator contractor’s sign-off
- What changes on the bill
- The line for each cab, or each group of cabs, ends
Fax machine or multifunction copier
- What replaces it
- A ported fax number, an analog adapter, or email-to-fax
- What it needs from the building
- A network connection, and one analog port if the machine stays
- What changes on the bill
- The line charge ends; if the machine is gone, just cancel it
Intrusion alarm communicator
- What replaces it
- A digital or cellular communicator, fitted by the alarm company
- What it needs from the building
- A path your panel model supports, and a monitoring test
- What changes on the bill
- The line charge ends, though the alarm company may add a fee
Entry callbox or gate phone
- What replaces it
- A network callbox, a cellular unit, or a hosted number
- What it needs from the building
- Power and a path at the gate
- What changes on the bill
- The line charge ends; new cable out to the gate costs extra
Legacy modem in a card terminal, tank monitor or controller
- What replaces it
- An IP connection, or an analog adapter if the equipment cannot change
- What it needs from the building
- Word from the equipment vendor on what it supports: start here first
- What changes on the bill
- The line charge ends, unless the equipment works only on copper
The supervision and backup power figures for a fire alarm path are in what NFPA 72 asks of a fire alarm phone line, and the cab phone’s own rules are in elevator phone line requirements.
Our quote lists each line and names the equipment and the path that replace it. It carries no overage, exchange or option fees, and the monthly rate does not go up at 12 months, at 18 months or later.
What we find before you buy any equipment
A POTS replacement box bought online will almost certainly give you dial tone.
It arrives set up for a generic building, and it cannot tell you what yours needs.
- Your fire panel may report in a protocol the monitoring company’s receiver no longer accepts.
- The cellular signal near the elevator machine room can be two bars in the stairwell and nothing at the controller.
- The number on the alarm sticker may have been ported to a different carrier in 2019 and no longer be yours to move.
We look for all three in the free review, before anything is ordered. Then we quote only the lines still in use.
In the Bay Area, where the circuit is ours too, one support team answers for the lines and the connection they run on. If you are weighing a box against a managed service, see how POTS in a box works and where it stops; to set our POTS replacement beside Granite’s, see WilloWeb versus Granite.
The order a POTS line replacement runs in
Run in this order, a replacement can recover from a wrong choice midway.
Step 1: List every line on the bill
Get a current bill that shows every billed number and match each one to the equipment it serves. A number nobody can match is traced before it is cancelled, since it may still serve something.
Step 2: Separate the life-safety lines
Fire alarm and elevator lines form one group, everything else the other. The first group needs its contractor and a scheduled test; treat a fire alarm line like a fax line and the panel can go unmonitored without anyone knowing.
Step 3: Choose a path for each line
A fax number and a monitored alarm path share nothing except the copper they run on today. One product chosen for every line will be more than the fax needs or less than the panel needs.
Step 4: Install the replacement
The replacement goes in before any line moves.
Step 5: Test with the receiving party
For a monitored panel, the monitoring center confirms it received every kind of signal the panel sends, beyond a single test alarm. For an elevator, a call goes out from each cab and someone confirms who answered. For a fax, send one.
Step 6: Disconnect the copper, then check the bill
The disconnect order is what stops the charge, and it is easy to skip once everything works. Get each cancellation confirmed in writing and check the next two bills.
For a building in the Bay Area we run the whole job ourselves; see how we run the cutover there.
Questions about replacing POTS lines
Most of them, if the replacement presents analog dial tone on the same pair of wires the equipment expects. A fax machine, a callbox or an older modem then plugs into a port in the closet in place of the telephone company’s line, and a test confirms it works as before. A monitored alarm panel and an elevator cab phone also have to show that the new path reports its own failure, and their own contractors set that up and test it.
A replacement device leaves the analog equipment as it is. It sits in the building, gives the existing equipment dial tone and carries each call over a data or cellular path. Switching to VoIP changes the phone system itself: the numbers move to a hosted platform, the handsets become IP phones, and any analog equipment that stays gets an adapter. Many buildings need both, because the staff phones are a VoIP project and the alarm dialer is a device-and-path project, and the two often move on different dates.
Usually, yes. Under the FCC’s porting rules you can keep a number when you change providers in the same area, including a move from a telephone company line to a VoIP service. Keep every number that is printed somewhere: alarm monitoring accounts, elevator emergency stickers, fax numbers on letterhead and callbox directories all point at numbers that are hard to chase down later. A port is ordered with the new service and does not happen on its own, and the old line stays in service until the number has moved; the FCC’s advice is not to end service with your current company before starting with the new one.
Two things: that the replacement works, and that its failure shows. The second is the easier one to skip. Take the new path down and watch for the trouble condition to appear at the panel and at the monitoring center. A path that carries signals but cannot report its own failure leaves the building worse off than the copper did, because everyone believes it is still monitored. For a fire alarm path, NFPA 72 sets how soon that failure has to reach the monitoring company; see phone lines for fire alarm panels.
Responsibility is split, and your contracts set the details. The alarm contractor owns the panel and the acceptance test, the monitoring company owns the receiver and the dispatch, whoever supplies the path owns the path, and the building owner is the one the authority having jurisdiction deals with. Before the cutover, write down which company stands behind each link in that chain, and keep the acceptance test report from the contractor who ran it.
No rule makes a business move off its analog lines by a set date, but the service can stop under them: in California, AT&T can stop copper phone service in parts of 360 exchanges from June 1, 2027. Check your city on our AT&T copper retirement page.
Send us a current phone bill
A bill that shows every billed number, with whatever you know about what each one connects to, is all we need to begin. The review and the estimate are free and carry no obligation.