Kommvia Business Phone Systems Series: How to Know When It’s Time for a Change

Business phone systems are an absolute staple and necessity in businesses.

Imaging calling a hotel, someone answering, telling the caller to hold on for a minute and then placing the handset face-down on the counter.

They would then proceed to answer three to four more calls in the same manner. This would be chaos.

This is not a new concept by any means but rather something that was solved many moons ago. The traditional, on-prem, PBX switch solved these issues and solved them well for decades.

Business Phone Systems Are STILL Running Strong…

I recently was visiting a high-end hotel and noticed they were still using an old Teledex phone system. The phone system was still running strong.

The question arises in business – do you replace what is good and working for a bright and shiny new phone system station? There are a lot of expenses that will be incurred with swapping an old phone system to a new one.

Not only is the equipment, technician install time, training the staff, and workflow (button “getting-used to”) going to cost you, most services nowadays are paid per seat.

I am by no way knocking VoIP or hosted PBX, because there are a ton of benefits, but the cost to run your business every single month now changes.

At Kommvia, we have made a calculator that can help you figured out what that looks like, and it actually is something you should consider heavily before going over to VoIP.

There’s an old adage that says, “If it ain’t broken, don’t fix it.”

This is certainly true in all areas of life, even your business.

VoIP vs POTS

Being in the field servicing, installing, fixing, and repairing business telephone systems for over 15 years, I’ve seen a lot of action. There have been businesses that switched to VoIP and absolutely hated it. The latency was unbearable in most cases. However, our world infrastructure is only getting better thus reducing those symptoms. Dropped calls are also a problem that happens often. At the end of the day, there’s not a whole lot we can do to pinpoint that issue due to it being a carrier problem that they tell us, “it is what it is.”

The issues that occur with new technology are typically fixed with time and other technologies.

POTS (plain-old telephone service) is planned to be phased out and the FCC already has ruled that carriers are no longer required to support the copper technology.

The FCC has shifted its vision to encouraging the adoption of newer technologies, leading to reduced support for POTS. 

The copper era is shutting down.

Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS) lines are being pulled, priced out, or flat-out disconnected. If you’re running critical systems on those lines, you’re sitting on borrowed time.

Where Businesses Still Depend on POTS

• Fax lines
• Fire and burglar alarms
• Elevator emergency phones
• Point-of-sale systems

When the copper goes, so do these functions. The mission is clear: migrate before the carrier pulls the plug.

Migration Options

• VoIP: Voice over Internet Protocol runs over your network. Cheaper, scalable, battle-tested.
• Fiber: Fast and reliable, the backbone that makes VoIP bulletproof.
• POTS Link Devices: Convert legacy analog gear into digital signals that ride cellular. Tactical, cost-effective bridge.
• Hybrid Systems: Blend solutions… digital voice with cellular backup for resilience when the network is under fire.

View Our Business Telephone Estimator Here

Why Planning Matters

This isn’t a last-minute job. When a POTS line dies, alarms stop reporting, elevators lose their lifeline, and your card readers can’t talk. Downtime costs more than a proactive upgrade.

Here’s the field checklist:

1. Assess the Field: Inventory every service tied to a POTS line.
2. Select Your Weapon: VoIP, fiber, cellular link… pick based on budget, reliability, and risk tolerance.
3. Run the Transition: Build a timeline. Execute clean. Avoid the scramble.

Whether you have an on-premise telephone system, need one, or are considering your options between VoIP, hosted PBX, or an on-premise phone system give us a shout.

We have helped business owners and ops managers all across Northwest Indiana, Chicago, greater Indiana, and South Michigan navigate this terrain from start to finish.

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