VoIP vs. Traditional Phone Lines: What Changed in 2025?

How the FCC’s copper line retirement and rising POTS prices reshaped business communications

For decades, traditional landlines (POTS — Plain Old Telephone Service) powered everyday business communications. They were reliable, familiar, and widely available.
But 2025 marks the year where everything changed.

Between the FCC allowing carriers to retire legacy copper networks and nationwide price hikes for POTS lines, organizations suddenly found themselves paying more for a service that was doing less.

At the same time, modern cloud-based VoIP and UCaaS platforms have matured—delivering stronger reliability, better mobility, AI-driven features, and lower total cost of ownership.

If your business hasn’t revisited its phone system strategy recently, 2025 is the year to do it.

FCC Copper Retirement: Why Traditional Lines Are Being Phased Out

The shift didn’t happen overnight, but it accelerated quickly.

The FCC has allowed carriers to:

• Retire aging copper infrastructure
• Stop repairing POTS lines
• End support and raise rates for legacy services

Carriers argue it’s no longer sustainable to maintain decades-old copper networks when modern IP networks are faster, more secure, and more cost-efficient.
For businesses, this means:

• Downtime is more frequent because maintenance is no longer prioritized
• Repair time is longer (if repairs are even available)
• Prices have skyrocketed — some organizations saw 3×–10× billing increases
• Many POTS-dependent devices are becoming unsupported

If your organization still uses POTS lines—for elevators, fire alarms, gate access systems, fax machines, or emergency phones—you’ve likely felt the impact.

POTS Price Increases: Paying More for a Retired Technology

By 2025, nearly every major carrier increased pricing for POTS services. Why? One reason:

Carriers want businesses off copper.

The strategy is simple: Make copper expensive and unreliable → drive migration to digital and cloud platforms.

Common issues businesses report include:

• Large, unexpected POTS rate increases
• Added “copper maintenance” or “technology retirement” fees
• Multi-year contracts being denied or replaced with month-to-month terms
• Fewer technicians available for copper repair

For organizations managing dozens—or hundreds—of POTS lines, these changes have created budget strain and operational risk.

VoIP in 2025: A Mature, Cost-Efficient, Reliable Replacement

While POTS lines are declining, VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) and cloud communications have become the standard for organizations of every size.

Here’s what changed:

1. Reliability is now higher than legacy copper

With:

• Redundant data centers
• Automatic failover
• SD-WAN & QoS enhancements
• LTE/5G backup options

Cloud voice can maintain uptime even during local outages—something copper lines can’t do.

2. Costs are lower and predictable

Instead of unpredictable POTS costs:

• VoIP uses a simple monthly price per user
• No copper maintenance fees
• No expensive long-distance or per-minute pricing
• No on-premises PBX hardware to maintain

Most Verge customers reduce communications spend by 20–40% when switching to VoIP.

3. Mobility matters more in 2025

Employees aren’t tied to a desk anymore. Cloud voice enables:

• Mobile softphones
• Remote/hybrid work support
• SMS & business messaging
• Unified collaboration tools
• Secure app-based calling

None of this is possible with traditional phone lines.

4. More devices and workflows have moved to IP

Systems that once required POTS now connect more efficiently across secure IP networks:

• Door access
• Alarm panels
• Point-of-sale systems
• Nurse call systems
• Elevator lines
• Fax & scanning workflows
• Emergency mass notifications

Businesses gain better oversight, better reporting, and lower monthly costs.

Staying on Copper is No Longer a Safe Option

Organizations sticking with POTS face real-world risks:

• Service discontinuation with little warning
• Rising costs every quarter
• Inability to support emergency services reliably (E911 compliance)
• No remote or mobile capabilities
• Limited or no support when something breaks
• Incompatibility with modern IT and security infrastructure

In contrast, VoIP and UCaaS systems deliver:

• Better uptime
• Better features
• Better security
• Better scalability
• Lower costs
• Higher resilience during outages

The business case is becoming undeniable and businesses of all sizes and sectors are starting to make the switch.