Multi-Site POTS Line Replacement,
One Program for Every Location
| Line | Count | Goes to |
|---|---|---|
| Voice lines | 40 | Extensions |
| Fax machines | 12 | Fax machine line |
| Intrusion alarm dialers | 14 | Adapter |
| Overhead paging | 4 | Adapter |
| Elevator phones | 6 | Life-safety review |
| Fire alarm communicators | 8 | Life-safety review |
| Purpose unknown | 12 | Trace, then cancel |
Every line accounted for before any copper is cancelled.
How do you replace POTS lines across many locations?
VoIP Services Now is the business phone service run by SRS Networks, a Salinas, California company operating since 1996. Inventory first, then a phased cutover: every copper line at every site is sorted by what it feeds. Voice lines move to hosted VoIP from $11.99 per user per month with a 1-year commitment, fax, paging and alarm dialers keep working behind analog adapters, elevator phones and fire alarm communicators are reviewed separately, and lines that feed nothing are cancelled. For multi-location deployments, a member of our team is onsite to roll out the system at every location you need. Call (866) 601-3636.
At Forty Locations, Nobody Has the List
One office can walk its copper in an afternoon. A company with forty locations usually cannot say how many analog lines it pays for, let alone what each one feeds. The lines were ordered over years, site by site, by managers who have since moved on.
So the program starts with the bills, not the hardware. Every line on every invoice gets a destination before anything is ordered or cancelled: an extension, an adapter, a life-safety review, or the cancellation list. The last one is often where the biggest saving sits.
What Changed for Copper in 2026, and What Sets Your Date
The FCC granted carriers blanket authority to grandfather legacy voice services provisioned over copper wire. Grandfathering closes a service to new orders; it does not by itself cut off existing lines.
Source: FCC news release, FCC 26-19The earliest date AT&T could discontinue copper landline service at wire centers serving about 90,000 customers in 18 states. AT&T plans to retire the large majority of its copper outside California by the end of 2029.
Source: Broadband Breakfast, January 13, 2026Copper is retired wire center by wire center, each on its own notice, so there is no single national cutoff. Your deadline is the notice your carrier sends for your lines. Get it in writing.
Where Each Kind of Copper Line Goes
| The line feeds | What replaces it | What to know |
|---|---|---|
| Voice (people answer it) | An extension on the hosted system | The number ports. The copper is cancelled after the port completes, not before. |
| Fax machine or MFP | A fax machine line, $13.99 a month with a 1-year commitment, adapter included | No user seat needed. Each machine is tested on the line before you rely on it, and before its copper is cancelled. |
| Two fax machines at one site | Two fax machine lines sharing one two-port adapter | Each line keeps its own number, ported or new. |
| Intrusion alarm dialer | An analog adapter port, quoted | Have your monitoring company test each panel's signals after the move, site by site, before the copper is cancelled. |
| Overhead paging | An analog adapter port, quoted | The amplifier keeps the dial tone it expects. |
| Door or gate entry | An analog adapter port, quoted | Intercoms that expect a physical line keep the dial tone they expect. |
| Card terminal or modem | An adapter port, quoted, if it still dials out | Tested on the adapter first, because older modem protocols do not all survive the move. If nothing dials out on it any more, the line is simply cancelled. |
| Elevator emergency phone | A separate life-safety review | Code and inspection requirements apply. Some installations need a dedicated cellular communicator from the elevator vendor. |
| Fire alarm communicator | A separate life-safety review | Reporting requirements are your alarm vendor's and inspector's to set. The answer is often a dedicated communicator. |
| Nobody knows | Traced, then cancelled if it feeds nothing | Cancelling a line that feeds nothing is pure saving: there is nothing to replace it with. |
Count Your Copper Across Every Site
Lines by what they feed, all sites
52 lines: 24 to extensions, 16 to adapters, 6 for life-safety review, 6 to trace.
Your copper, sorted
52
lines across 8 locations
- 24Become extensions
Moved onto the hosted phone system; the numbers port.
- 16Move behind analog adapters
The device keeps its dial tone; the copper goes.
- 6Life-safety assessment
Assessed separately. Some need a dedicated cellular communicator from your alarm or elevator vendor.
- 6Trace, then cancel if dead
A dead line cancelled needs nothing to replace it.
Collecting line lists from site managers first? Download the line inventory template (CSV)
How a Multi-Site Copper Retirement Runs
The order matters more than the speed. A line cancelled before its number ports, or before its device works on the new service, cannot simply be switched back on.
Voice moves onto the same hosted system as the rest of the company, so the multi-location phone rollout and the copper retirement can run as one project.
- 1
Collect every site's bill
One recent invoice per location, listing every line. It is the only count that matches what you pay for.
- 2
Sort every line
Voice, device, life-safety or dead, as in the table above. Dead lines go on the cancellation list straight away.
- 3
Order the sites
By contract end date, and by risk: sites with life-safety lines or a carrier notice in hand go first.
- 4
Survey every site, then pilot one
Every location is surveyed before install, which is where unexplained lines get traced. One pilot location then goes live end to end, so adapter and fax testing is settled before it repeats across the rest.
- 5
Onsite rollout at every location
For multi-location deployments, a member of our team is onsite to roll out the system at every location you need.
- 6
Port, test, then cancel
Copper at each site is cancelled only after its numbers port and its devices work on the new service. Life-safety circuits stay off the cancellation list until their replacement is in place.
Elevator Phones and Fire Panels Are Not a Phone-System Decision
An elevator emergency phone and a fire alarm communicator report to someone who has to answer, under requirements your inspector enforces. Replacing them is the building's decision, made with the elevator or alarm vendor, not a line item to fold into a phone order.
The requirements are specific. A North Carolina State Construction Office summary for state buildings, citing the 2013 edition of NFPA 72, notes that communications equipment a fire alarm transmitter shares needs 24 hours of secondary power (8 where the authority having jurisdiction accepts it), and that elevator emergency communications need at least 4 hours of auxiliary power. It warns that the state Department of Labor may treat a change in telephone service as triggering a full upgrade to the 2019 edition of ASME A17.1, which requires text and video. Your jurisdiction's adopted editions are the ones that apply. Source: NC DOA, December 15, 2022
What we do is find every one of those lines in the inventory, tell you which vendor owns the next step, and leave those circuits off the cancellation list until their replacement is in place. For some installations the right replacement is a dedicated cellular communicator, which the vendor supplies and we do not sell.
When This Program Is the Wrong Answer
Copper that feeds only elevator phones and fire panels, with no voice lines on it, is a job for your elevator or alarm vendor's communicator. A phone system adds nothing there.
If you want a managed cellular box with battery backup installed at every site as a service, that is a specialist product, and we do not sell it. Buy it from a provider who does, and keep us for the voice side.
Sites whose internet cannot be made dependable should stay on copper for now, because every adapter rides that connection. Fix the circuit first.
Send us your line count and locations
Get a phone-service quote with the installation scope spelled out. Compare the whole job before deciding which provider fits.
Line AuditRequest a phone-system quote
Step 1 — What do you need?
What to settle before you switch
- 1
We review your requirements
Start with users, site locations and the system you have today. You do not need a finished specification to ask for a quote.
- 2
Separate service, equipment and installation
Ask for the recurring plan, optional desk phones, onsite work and applicable fees to be shown separately. Site readiness and devices determine the installation scope.
- 3
Agree the port and installation plan
Contract dates, site access and carrier confirmation shape the target cutover. Keep current service active until the number transfer is confirmed complete.
Multi-Site POTS Replacement FAQs
How long does a multi-site copper retirement take?
Do you replace elevator phones and fire alarm lines?
Will our intrusion alarm panels work after the copper goes?
What do you need from each site to start?
Do all sites have to switch at once?
Will our phone numbers change?
What does it cost per location?
What happens to adapter-connected devices if a site's internet goes down?
Retire the Copper at Every Site
with Every Device Accounted For
Send one bill per location, or the planner's totals. We sort every line before anything is cancelled.
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