Knowledge
POTS line replacement: what copper retirement means for your building
A POTS line is a “plain old telephone service” line: a copper pair from the phone company that carries one call and takes its power from the network. In parts of Alberta, TELUS is retiring its copper as fibre arrives, and moving to fibre or a wireless service is mandatory inside its retirement boundaries. For a building, the risk isn’t the office phones. It’s the elevator phone, the fire panel, the alarm and the fax machine quietly wired to copper, which need a plan, a test and the right people in the room before the copper goes.
What is actually happening
TELUS says it will only retire copper once its PureFibre network is available in a community, and that it then books an appointment to transfer services. It also says that if a home or business is inside one of its copper-retirement boundaries, moving its TELUS services to PureFibre “or a wireless solution, is mandatory” (TELUS, copper retirement).
Three details on that page matter to a property manager:
- The transfer isn’t automatic. A technician visit is required, and customers are told by letter, email or phone.
- Apartment buildings and condos are included. Copper is retired if the building is inside a retirement boundary, but the owner, manager or strata first has to approve the fibre installation, and TELUS asks them to be aware of the risks of not approving it.
- Business costs vary. For business customers, TELUS says there is no cost to transfer “in most circumstances”, depending on the products involved.
The regulator is watching the same shift. In a March 2026 speech, CRTC Commissioner Bram Abramson asked what the future of the public switched telephone network is, and noted “how copper landlines continue to retreat” (CRTC, speech to CanWISP).
Why it matters more for buildings than for offices
Copper has one property that most of its replacements don’t: power. In a concurring opinion in Telecom Order CRTC 2026-158 (July 2026), Commissioner Abramson described copper-based service as drawing power from the network, while fibre-based service depends on local powered equipment. For some customers, he wrote, the line remains a lifeline.
TELUS offers a free battery backup to Home Phone customers who ask, rated for four hours of talk time or eight hours of standby. It also says that home phone service during a power outage is “best effort”, on copper or fibre, even with the battery in place (TELUS, fibre upgrade notice). That page is written for residential customers. A building’s own lines need their own plan.
The lines to find before the technician arrives
Walk the building and make the list. In our experience, these are the ones that get missed:
| Line | Why it needs care |
|---|---|
| Elevator phones | The elevator code sets requirements for the emergency phone, including backup power and a daily check. A phone that met them on copper may not on a new service. See below. |
| Fire alarm panel | Many panels were installed to dial out over a copper line to a monitoring company. Changing that path involves the alarm company and, depending on the building, the fire authority. |
| Security and intrusion alarm | Same pattern: an alarm communicator on a copper line. The monitoring company has to be part of the change. |
| Fax machines | Fax over a data path is less forgiving than a voice call. Test it before the copper goes, not after. |
| Card terminals, door phones, pool phones, refuge stations | Each one is a small device with a line nobody thinks about until it stops working. |
We maintain the telephone circuits these systems depend on. We don’t monitor fire panels or alarms, and we don’t certify code compliance: the authority having jurisdiction does that.
The elevator phone, specifically
Ontario’s elevator regulator put it plainly in a 2020 advisory. The emergency communication requirements in the CSA B44 elevator code are performance-based and don’t mandate or exclude any technology, so POTS, VoIP and cellular can all be acceptable if configured to meet them. But it also warned that an elevator phone that met the requirements on POTS “may not be capable of meeting these requirements if switched to a VoIP service”, because it may only be able to confirm a connection to the modem, not beyond it (TSSA Advisory 290-20). That advisory is Ontario’s; Alberta has its own adoption of the code. The engineering point holds anywhere. More in the elevator emergency phone.
The options
- Move the line to fibre with the incumbent. Often simplest. Confirm with each device’s owner (elevator contractor, alarm company) that the device works on the new service, and decide what powers it in an outage.
- Move it to a dedicated cellular communicator. Common for alarm panels and elevator phones. The device vendor and the contractor choose it, and it needs a signal test in the elevator machine room or the panel location.
- Bring the line onto your building’s phone system. An on-premise system with analog ports can carry elevator, pool and door phones inside the building, with a SIP trunk to the outside world and battery backup sized for it. This is where we usually come in. See on-premise systems.
- A mix. Most buildings end up here.
Whichever you choose, the step people skip is the last one: test every line end to end after the change, write down where it terminates, and test it again a year later.
How we help
A Telephony Health Check finds every line in the building, documents where each one terminates and tells you which ones depend on copper. It’s a fixed fee, $1,500 for a single site, plus GST, with no obligation to do the work with us. If you go ahead, both of our service agreements include an annual emergency-calling and life-safety test with a certificate for the file. Property managers can read more on our multi-family page.
Frequently asked questions
Do we have to move off copper?
If your building is inside a TELUS copper-retirement boundary, TELUS says the transfer to PureFibre or a wireless service is mandatory. Outside those boundaries, copper continues for now. Ask TELUS whether you are in one.
Will our elevator phone keep working on fibre?
Maybe. It depends on the phone, the service and the backup power. Your elevator contractor has to confirm it, and it has to be tested after the change.
What happens in a power outage after the switch?
Copper drew power from the network. Fibre and cellular don’t. Each line needs a backup power plan, and someone has to own it.
How long does this take?
The incumbent’s notice sets the deadline. Start the inventory as soon as the letter arrives, because the elevator contractor and alarm company have their own schedules.
Not sure where your phone system stands?
The Telephony Health Check is a fixed-fee look at what you have, what 911 does from every phone, and where the money leaks. Or call (403) 698-0700 and a person answers.