No Copper, No Problem: POTS Replacement at Pharmaceutical Scale

When a large pharmaceutical company's POTS lines became a financial and operational liability, INS stepped in with a wireless replacement solution — supporting mission-critical connectivity across elevator systems, security alarms, and fax lines throughout the transition.

There’s a moment in almost every POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) conversation where our customers realize what they’re really dealing with. It’s not just about old copper lines; it’s about the systems those lines are quietly keeping alive, and what happens if they go down. 

That’s the conversation we had with a large pharmaceutical company that came to us after their alternate carrier started phasing out POTS service. As lines were being discontinued and the cost of keeping the remaining ones active kept climbing, they needed a path forward that helped reduce operational disruption.

Why their POTS lines couldn’t go dark… 

Many businesses view POTS replacement as a telecom transition. In reality, it’s almost always a safety conversation.

The POTS lines we were asked to replace weren't just carrying fax traffic. They were the backbone of the facility's elevator emergency communication systems—lines that exist to get people help when something goes wrong. They also supported security alarms and fax communications with customers. In this environment, people and products move through those elevators constantly, so reliability was essential.

The financial pressure from the carrier gave the project urgency, but the life-safety dimension gave it weight. We knew the solution had to perform reliably over time.

The wireless solution we built for scale

We came in with a POTS replacement solution that uses wireless networks to replicate the function of those copper lines, delivering the analog dial-tone compatibility that legacy equipment requires, without the infrastructure that's being phased out.

What made this project stand out wasn't the technology itself, but the scope. There are plenty of companies that can replace a handful of POTS lines at a single location. We were deployed across facilities with nearly 200 POTS lines at a single site—assessing, surveying, installing, and commissioning the full solution.

That kind of scale benefits from more than a product. It requires process, coordination, and a team experienced in adapting when things don't go exactly as planned.

The INS standard in action—if you’re not happy, neither are we

Like most complex deployments, we ran into challenges early in the rollout. That's part of what large-scale field work looks like. What matters is how you respond, and our answer is always the same: if the customer isn't satisfied, we're not satisfied. That’s how we earn our customers’ trust for the long haul.

If you need a partner who can support elevator lines, security systems, and mission-critical fax communications at scale, across large facilities, INS has experience doing it. We've deployed solutions covering nearly 200 POTS lines in a single location, and we can bring that same experience and support to yours.

Facing POTS phase-out at your facility? Talk to an INS specialist about what replacement looks like. Contact INS →

Author: Damon Zimmer, Strategic Account Manager, INS