POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service)

POTS lines

POTS lines are the most common type of delivery for telephone service. They are the standard for residential customers, small retail and SoHo businesses in the United States. POTS lines are delivered over a single twisted pair. While this form of delivery may work well for phone service, it is often problematic for DSL delivery and modem connections.

POTS and Centrex Lines

Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS) is the standard for telephone service. The standard residual and small business lines are delivered via POTS lines. POTS lines use analog signals to send and receive your calls. Initially, this was the perfect solution, but as phone service needs extended outside major metropolitan areas the phone companies had to find ways to extend the signal as far as possible. Bridge taps and load coils were installed throughout the network extend that analog signal. It worked great for analog phone signals, but created havoc when digital signals were required. In fact, these additions are major factors for customer’s inability to get DSL.

A centrex line is feature rich POTS line. Centrex lines offer customers numerous services including caller id, call transfer, three party conferencing, ring back, call group hunting, call pickup, etc. Many small businesses choose Centrex when opening their first office. Unfortunately, this often results in a term agreement for as much as three years leaving your company with a type of service that doesn’t keep up with the company’s growth. When ordering your communications needs be sure to consider your future needs, not just your present situation.

Carriers Choice primarily provides POTS service as an add on service for customers needing alarm lines, backup lines for their PBX, or dial-in connection to computer systems. Let us know what your company needs with the form below. We will be happy to help.

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