One Vendor, One Bill, and $150K Back Every Month: A National POTS Replacement at Scale
When a national services company with 500+ locations across the country started receiving FCC termination notices from their telecom providers, they didn't wait. They called INS.
That decision—to act early instead of scrambling at the deadline—ended up saving them somewhere between $100,000 and $150,000 every single month. Here's how it happened.
The Problem: Thousands of Lines, Dozens of Carriers, Zero Visibility
Like a lot of large organizations, this company had built up their telephony infrastructure over decades. POTS lines (old copper telephone lines) were spread across hundreds of facilities, managed through multiple telecom providers under multiple contracts. Fire alarms, elevator emergency phones, security systems, fax machines: all of it running on legacy copper that was slowly being switched off nationwide.
The decision came when one of their northeast locations received a termination notice. They asked their carrier a simple question: Is this just our site, or is this everywhere? The answer was everywhere. The FCC had granted carriers the authority to sunset legacy copper-based POTS infrastructure entirely.
They had a year to convert that first site. They decided to get ahead of the rest.
What We Found When We Got Inside
Before we touched a single line, we did site surveys across their facilities, tagging and auditing every active connection. What we found surprised them: they were paying for lines they weren't using.
That discovery alone reshaped the project. This wasn't just a compliance migration; it was an opportunity to clean house, eliminate waste, and build something that actually reflected how their business operated today.
We migrated their lines in phases, starting with fax infrastructure as phase one, then moving through their safety-critical systems (fire alarms, elevator lines, and blue phone services) onto the LTE network via Verizon Wireless. Compliance readiness was built into the foundation, meaning every solution we deployed carried applicable certifications intended to support a facilities inspection.
One Vendor. One Bill. One Agreement.
What ultimately sealed the deal on this project? Billing consolidation.
Before INS, this customer was managing contracts with multiple telecom providers across the country. Different rates by region, different billing cycles, different points of contact. It was an accounting headache and a contract management nightmare rolled into one.
We were able to deliver service nationwide under a single agreement: one vendor, one bill, flat-rated across every location. No more regional pricing variations and juggling relationships with multiple carriers.
No Internal IT Burden: The Case for a Fully Managed Solution
The other factor that moved this project forward was INS CARE.
We offer tiered care packages tailored to exactly how involved a customer wants to be. In this case, they wanted a fully-managed solution: they place a ticket, we handle it. No internal IT burden, no break-fix stress. The system stays supported, and they stay focused on running their business.
The combination of unified billing and a fully-managed care model is what turned a compliance-driven project into a long-term operational partnership.
The Option to Act Before the Notice Arrives
From the moment this customer made the investment, the payback window was four to six months. After that, they were in the clear—recouping over a million dollars annually that had previously been going toward redundant and deteriorating copper infrastructure.
There's a broader lesson here that I share with every company still sitting on POTS lines: the runway is shorter than you think. Every carrier has a plan to shut this technology down. The companies that are holding on until the last minute may find themselves scrambling for compliance, paying premium rates for emergency migrations, and potentially failing safety audits in the process.
This company chose a different path. Early adoption gave them negotiating leverage, time to do it right, and a financial return they're still benefiting from today.
Beyond POTS: What Cellular Connectivity Opens Up
One thing I always enjoy watching happen is what comes after a POTS migration. Once a customer sees cellular infrastructure live in their facilities—Ethernet ports, LTE connectivity, now 5G-capable hardware—the wheels start turning.
This situation was no different. After seeing what cellular could do for their telephony, they started exploring fixed wireless access for other applications: redundant internet connectivity, backup ISP circuits, guest Wi-Fi. The same hardware that replaced their POTS lines became the starting point for a broader connectivity conversation.
That's the nature of getting the right infrastructure in place. It doesn't just solve the problem you called about—it opens the door to the next solution.
Ready to assess your POTS exposure before service changes create urgency? Contact the INS team to schedule a site audit.
Author: James Butler, VP of Sales Engineering
