Copper Landlines Being Phased Out Soon
Atlanta, Georgia – As you may know, plain old telephone service (POTS) lines are on their way out. Large telephone companies like AT&T and Verizon have been moving in this direction for years. Now the end of service date is approaching very quickly.
TDM phone lines as they are called are actually copper land lines that are very expensive to maintain and service. Consequently, the big phone companies are prodding and pushing their customers to ‘cut the cord” so to speak and switch their phone service over to their VOIP offerings. VOIP stands for Voice Over Internet Protocol. VOIP lines are advantageous for phone companies because they are cheaper to service and more profitable. They use your existing internet service to carry voice and allow you to make phone calls over the internet. In the early years of VOIP the voice quality was mediocre. Many of you will remember talking to individuals on the phone and hearing the static and poor quality of companies like Vonage. Today however the quality of most VOIP telephone offerings has been greatly improved.
One problem associated with VOIP phone lines is the fact that most are not compatible with your Atlanta Security systems and other home alarm systems. This means that most don’t have the bandwidth or quality to actually allow your security alarm system to transmit the emergency digital signal to your security alarm’s central monitoring station when the alarm is tripped. This is a serious problem since most telephone companies do not tell their customers about this dangerous problem while they are selling them on their VOIP phone line service. They simply neglect to tell us about this glaring deficiency before they install their VOIP phone line. The customer never knows that they have a problem until they see the yellow trouble light on their keypad.
Here at American Guardian, Atlanta’s Security systems leader, we always informed our customers if they have landline monitoring to call us before they change their phone line or phone service. This also allows us to install a cellular radio communication module on their Atlanta security system so they won’t have an interruption of their life saving Atlanta Security system monitoring when their VOIP line is installed.
There was a recent article in a leading Security industry publication that reported that on August 2nd, 2022 an FCC order released local phone companies from the obligation to provide copper loops to their competitors. When they did this their action caused the cancellation and increased monthly pricing on copper POTS lines. Also, at the end of last year, Verizon announced that they would cancel all of their TDM business services by the end of 2023.
Many of you know, if you currently still have one of the old copper POTS lines that your monthly rates have gone up dramatically over the past few years. Some of my customers have told me that they are now being billed over $110 per month for their copper land line!
On May 5th, 2023, AT&T filed papers before the FCC stating that all of the copper landline TDM services will be discontinued by October 2026. In the meantime, customers should expect outrageous monthly rate increases on their copper landlines until they are forced to drop them due to high prices or phone company discontinuance in 2026.
For the best priced on Atlanta Security systems or Atlanta Home Alarms call American Guardian at (770) 446-9577.
American Guardian, founded in 1985, is Atlanta area based and family run. We are also an accredited member of the Atlanta Better Business Bureau with an A+ rating and with zero customer complaints on their record.