POTS lines are going away. Here is what that means for your bill.

POTS lines, the copper phone lines that still run fax machines, fire alarm panels, and elevator phones, are being retired by the carriers that own them. Prices have climbed sharply while the copper comes down. AT&T has said it expects to stop providing copper-based services across the vast majority of its footprint by the end of 2029, and the practical deadlines start much sooner.

By Shane Stewart, Founder. Last updated: July 2026.

What counts as a POTS line

Plain old telephone service: an analog line running over copper. If your building has a fax number, an alarm panel that dials out, an elevator phone, or a line everyone describes as "we've always had that," there's a decent chance it's POTS. The FCC counted 16 million switched access lines still in service at the end of 2024. Three years earlier there were 29 million. Businesses hold more of what's left than consumers do, mostly because of exactly those specialty lines.

Why your copper bill got so expensive

Two things happened, and most write-ups get the first one wrong.

In 2019, the FCC granted large carriers forbearance from the rules that required them to lease analog copper lines to competing providers at regulated, cost-based rates. It did not end retail price caps, and it did not order anyone to shut off copper. What it did was start a clock: existing wholesale arrangements were grandfathered for three years, and that window closed in August 2022. Competitive providers that resold copper lost their cost basis, and repricing accelerated from there.

The second thing is simple arithmetic. Copper networks cost roughly the same to maintain whether they carry thirty million lines or sixteen. AT&T has put its copper maintenance spend at around $6 billion a year. Fewer lines carry that cost every year, so the price per line goes up, and carriers have little reason to soften the landing on a network they're actively retiring.

The results show up in the trade press. Channel Futures reported channel executives seeing per-line prices rise as high as $1,000 a month in extreme cases, and one distributor executive described a single month's PRI invoice above $19,000. Vendors that sell POTS replacements put typical copper business line pricing at $80 a month and up; those are vendor estimates, so treat the exact figures with care, but nobody in the industry disputes the direction.

The deadlines are real now

AT&T stopped selling new copper installs, moves, and changes across roughly 20 states in October 2025, began decommissioning around 500 wire centers in mid 2026, and expects to end copper-based service across the vast majority of its footprint by the end of 2029. Other carriers are running their own versions of the same play. The FCC's own data shows lines declining at nearly 18 percent a year.

Waiting is not neutral. On a legacy service, the price rises while you wait, and once your wire center gets a formal retirement notice, the timeline belongs to the carrier, not to you.

The lines that bite are the ones nobody remembers

Moving office phones off copper is the easy part, and most companies did it years ago. The problem is the specialty lines: fire alarm panels, elevator phones, burglar alarms, gate and door lines, the fax machine in accounting. Some of those panels have been dialing out over the same pair of copper wires for decades.

Life-safety lines are also not a do-it-yourself VoIP project. Fire codes require monitored, reliable communication paths for alarm panels, your fire marshal has opinions, and your insurance carrier does too. Channel Futures reported one case where a downed fire alarm line started the clock on a $1,500-a-day fine. The fix for these lines is purpose-built: cellular replacement units designed for alarm and elevator applications, installed with your alarm vendor and signed off by the local authority.

What to do, in order

First, find every line. POTS lines hide on invoices under decades-old account numbers, at locations you've closed, inside bundles nobody itemizes. Pull every phone bill across every site and match lines to physical reality. Our guide to auditing your telecom bill covers how to do that, and the renewal calendar template is where the results should live.

Second, classify what you find. Ordinary voice and fax lines are one bucket. Fire alarms, elevators, and security panels are another, and they carry code requirements.

Third, replace by bucket. Voice moves to VoIP or your phone system. Fax moves to electronic fax or an adapter. Life-safety lines move to purpose-built cellular units through your alarm vendor.

Fourth, do it on your schedule. Companies that replace lines before a retirement notice get to compare providers and negotiate. Companies that do it during a 90-day notice window take whatever is available.

Stackstone Advisory is an independent technology advisor. Finding every legacy line and pricing the replacements across providers is part of what our free Technology Spend Assessment covers, alongside telecom expense management. Book a discovery call if the 2029 clock is on your mind.