For facility & property managers
The copper line behind your phone is being retired. Plan the replacement now.
Carriers are shutting down analog copper on their own schedule, and the notice you get may be short. Before that happens, someone has to know exactly which circuits in your building still run on it — and what each one is legally required to do. That is a 20-minute phone call, not a procurement project.
No cost, no obligation, nothing to install to have the conversation.
Where things stand
The copper sunset is the carriers’ deadline, not a sales pitch.
Four things worth knowing before you plan a budget. Every claim below links to the filing or the reporting it came from, so you can check it yourself — or hand it to someone who will.
Step one
Build the circuit inventory before you talk to anyone.
Most buildings have more analog circuits than anyone remembers signing for. Tick what you have — it takes a minute, and it gives you the list to read off when you call.
Circuit inventory
Nothing is sent anywhere. This builds a summary you can copy or read aloud.
Nothing selected yet. Most buildings find between four and a dozen.
THE PART THAT CARRIES LIABILITY
What NFPA 72 and ASME A17.1 actually require of you.
NFPA 72
Fire alarm communications
ASME A17.1 / CSA B44
Elevator emergency phones
Everything else
Fax, POS, gates, paging, security
WHAT THE CALL ACTUALLY IS
Your POTS line replacement plan, in one twenty-minute call.
We go circuit by circuit with you
We check the notices for your addresses
We sort it by use case, not by line
You get numbers to take to finance
Common questions
What facility managers ask us first.
Not shopping. Sorting. Split your circuits into the ones a code official cares about — fire alarm communications, elevator emergency phones, area-of-refuge stations — and everything else. The first group sets your real schedule because it involves people outside your building. The second group can follow at your own pace. Buying hardware before that split is how projects get redone.
Because the wiring is the quick part. A fire alarm communications change generally has to be coordinated with your monitoring provider, documented, and accepted by your authority having jurisdiction, and inspectors work to their own calendar rather than your carrier’s. That sequencing, not the hardware, is what turns a short notice window into a rushed and expensive one.
Whichever one your jurisdiction has adopted — which is often not the newest edition published. Adopted editions of NFPA 72 and of ASME A17.1 / CSA B44 vary between states and sometimes between cities in the same state. Confirming the enforced edition with your AHJ before anything is specified is the single cheapest step in the whole project.
Often, yes, once you touch it. Existing installations are frequently allowed to remain as-is under the edition they were approved under, but replacing the communication path is generally treated as new work and reviewed against the currently adopted edition — and the 2019 and 2022 editions raised the bar on two-way communication, accessibility and reliability. Your AHJ makes that call, so ask before you plan around a grandfathered install.
Against your current copper bill, not against zero. As carriers de-emphasize copper, the lines still on it commonly run $100–$150 a month each, and steep increases have pushed individual circuits past $200 and in some documented cases beyond $500. Most buildings we talk to are comparing a one-time project against a monthly charge that is still climbing.
For a break room fax line, that is a defensible choice. For a fire alarm communicator or an elevator phone, the line going dead is a deficiency from the moment it happens, and you do not control when an inspector, an insurer or an incident discovers it. The waiting strategy trades a planned project for an unplanned one at a worse price.
Start here
Call us before the notice arrives.
The fastest path is the phone. We will tell you what has to move, what can wait, and what it costs — before a carrier notice sets the schedule for you. If it is easier to have us reach out, use the form.