4. POTS ‘Scare Tactics’

A story we first published in May became popular in July as concerns over a POTS replacement deadline of Aug. 2 drew near.

But as we made clear in the story, despite a prominent telecommunications media outlet writing last fall that the FCC had mandated POTS line replacement by that date, it turns out those assertions were based on misinformation and “scare tactics.”

While vendors, partners and customers have been eyeballing Aug. 2, an FCC spokesperson confirmed to Channel Futures that the Commission has not mandated POTS replacement by that date. Sources clarified the ruling only applies to a very small subset of POTS lines, most of which fall outside the bounds of what channel partners sell.