Connected Nation

The Copper Countdown: What landline retirement means for you

• Jessica Denson • Season 6 • Episode 14

Share episode

The retirement of copper landlines is accelerating — and many businesses aren’t ready. 

On this episode of Connected Nation, guest host Grant Ahlbrand speaks with Max Silber, Vice President of Mobility and IoT at MetTel, to explore why this shift is happening now, what it means for essential services and businesses, and how digital solutions can deliver safer, smarter, and more cost-effective communication infrastructure. 

Whether you’re a business owner, IT manager, or simply curious about the future of connectivity, this conversation breaks down what you need to know to adapt and thrive in a post-copper world.

Recommended Links: 

Max Silber LinkedIn

MetTel Website

Grant Ahlbrand (00:07):

Welcome to Connected Nation, an award-winning podcast where we focus on all things broadband. From closing the digital divide to improving your internet speeds, we dive into technology topics that impact our lives, businesses, and communities. Today, we're tacking a massive shift in telecommunications, the retirement of copper landlines. Millions of businesses still rely on these outdated systems, but as they become obsolete, companies must adapt or face significant risks. Joining us today is Max Silver Vice President of Mobility and IOT at MetTel to discuss the urgent need for pods transformation, the challenges businesses face, and the digital solutions that can secure public safety and operational efficiency. I'm Grant Al Brandand, and this is Connected Nation. I'm Grant Al Brandand, and today we are joined by Max Silver Vice President of Mobility and iot at MetTel will discuss the rapid retirement of copper landlines, what it means for businesses and public safety, and how digital solutions can provide a more secure and reliable future. Welcome Max. Max Silber (01:14):

Thank you, grant. Thanks for having me on. Grant Ahlbrand (01:17):

Yeah, of course. So before we dive into today's topic, I would love our audience to get to know you a little bit better. Um, can you share about a little bit about your background, maybe college and just the whole journey of what led you to medtel? Max Silber (01:31):

Yeah, sure. It's actually kind of an unconventional story, and I feel like most people in this line of work, <laugh> have something similar. But I, I actually originally studied finance. I went to business school. I wanted to be a floor trader in Wall Street. That was kind of my dream. Uh, when I graduated, and this was a really long time ago, in the mid nineties, I, uh, couldn't find a, a job anywhere. The economy wasn't really doing that great. Uh, and then I had a really strange offer from a communication company, uh, called GTE Space Net. Uh, they offered me an assistant country manager position, which I thought was okay, that that sounds great. Uh, they just didn't tell me which country. And I, I guess I kind of assumed it was this country. Uh, but they ended up sending me to Latin America, and I lived in Ecuador, in Columbia for two years, uh, really understanding and really getting, uh, every facet of knowledge around satellite communication.
(02:27)
And I, I very quickly realized that I love technology, and I really fell in love with it and really got excited about it. And that's really what launched me into a communication career that's almost 30 years, uh, in the making at this point. Uh, and, and then of course now being at MetTel, uh, been been at MetTel now for almost 14 years. It, even though it seems like a minute, uh, and I specifically am responsible for anything around mobility and I OT connectivity, which is, you know, part of the category we're talking about today with, uh, POT'S retirement. Grant Ahlbrand (03:04):

So yeah, for someone who originally wanted to be a Wall Street floor trader and then has the, has the confidence to go to Latin, to Latin America to work, I mean, I feel like needing excitement and purpose from your job is really important. So what excites you most about the work that you do in this space now? Max Silber (03:22):

So, I, I love the fact that it's always ever changing. I mean, technology never stands still. Um, I've always had this deep passion for really innovation and anything to do with network connectivity. I'm so passionate, in fact, that over covid, I was, I was, I, I think my wife got like really tired of me just kind of talking to myself about <laugh>, uh, any kind of innovation that, uh, she then convinced me to start a podcast that we ended up converting into a video podcast we do for technology as well, uh, with, with, with our company, with Metel, uh, called Techie and the Biz. And we do that, uh, really just, just out of love. It's, it's just something I love to talk about. People always ask me questions, you know, all all my friends, uh, and family members that, you know, they kind of call me tech support. So I think you really have to love it. You really have to, you know, embrace, embrace innovation, embrace all the new technology that's, you know, not only just replacing older technology, but innovating and improving on the experience. Um, and I just, I've just enjoyed, and I've watched that complete evolution of telecommunication over the last 30 years. And I'm, I'm, I, I continue to stay just as excited at what's coming next. Grant Ahlbrand (04:41):

You know, what you said just about 30 seconds ago, I've never related to something so much about the, uh, your wife talking about you starting needing you to start a podcast. Um, I am someone who gets like super in deep with God. I'm a big sports fan. I'm a big fan of history, all that kind of stuff. And so whenever I will watch a documentary or a video or something and my girlfriend comes home, I'll just talk her ear off about it. And she's just like, you should start a podcast. And I think that's her, her sneaky way of being like, talk to somebody else about this. But, um, Max Silber (05:13):

I, I think that's what it is, but they're, they're not wrong. <laugh>, <laugh>, they're Grant Ahlbrand (05:16):

Wrong for sure. So you touched on it a bit, uh, a second ago, but let's, let's just move over to the big question. Um, so why are copper landlines being retired now, and what does this mean for the number of businesses that still depend on them? Max Silber (05:33):

So I think this is a really important, uh, question. It's a really important topic. We've had these copper lines in the ground now for, you know, over, over almost 50 or 60 years in some cases. Um, traditionally, if, and, and I know depending on the generation of listeners, some people can't even relate to it. Back in the day, you know, the way we communicated before cell phones and smartphones obviously, was we had landlines. And those landlines were, if you see an old, you know, kind of sitcom from the eighties, it was typically the kitchen phone with a long cord. And, and the way you'd communicate is you get that dial tone from basically a, a telecommunication company's plant. It was called a plant. Uh, and that plant essentially delivered very low level electrical energy over a copper line. That's how, even if there was a power outage, you could pick up that phone and you'd still hear a dial tone.
(06:32)
But that technology, uh, it really takes a significant amount of infrastructure and maintenance just to keep that dial tone actually working and, and to be able to deliver that service. And the problem is, over that extended period, 50, 60, sometimes 70 years, uh, that infrastructure hasn't been maintained or replaced. And that's why in some areas in the country, and you might be a business listening to this, and you experience this, you, you do still have pots lines or Plano telephony service, uh, dial tone over a copper line, but then every time it rains outside, maybe you, you lose that connectivity. And the reason why you're losing it is the plastic shielding over the copper that's been buried in the ground has already disintegrated to the point that whenever it gets wet and the plant senses that there's water on electricity, it shuts off service. That's kind of a fail safe mechanism.
(07:29)
So the, the infrastructure is, is really aging. There's significant maintenance costs in many cases, those plants providing that service, they're doing it with machinery that hasn't been manufactured in almost, you know, a half a century. So you can't even get parts to replace it anymore. And, and based off of that, the FCC, the Federal Communication Commission issued a directive years ago now actually trying to accelerate the transition of, uh, getting off of these services onto something that's more digital. Something that, something like a broadband connection using voiceover IP to replace traditional kind of copper voice. Uh, and of course, there's also these massive financial and operational impacts to the business. Uh, think of these, these landlines, these pots lines on this co copper infrastructure, the cost goes up regularly because the way the FCC allows something to get decommissioned is they wanna allow the telecommunication companies to encourage people to do it.
(08:37)
And the best way they can encourage you to get off a service is they just keep raising your rates until you say, this is ridiculous. I'm paying in, in some areas in California, I think they pay almost a thousand dollars a month for dial tone. So that's kind of a, you know, a moment where a business looks at it and says, why am I paying a thousand dollars for something I used to pay $40 a month for? And we should really look at alternate technologies. So all those components together, they really drive home the requirement to move off of this aging infrastructure and into something obviously that's, uh, more long term and more dependable for businesses in the long run. Grant Ahlbrand (09:18):

Yeah, I really, really appreciate how you laid out the whole problem that we're dealing with here, because for the listeners of this podcast, there is quite a few people who will be intimately familiar with this issue, and they'll know everything just like you about it, but there's also people that are either, whether they're business owners or homeowners or just anyone that's just looking to learn more. So the, how you laid it out there and kind of showed everyone what's what the situation is, is very, very helpful. So, um, Max Silber (09:49):

You think, I I always say it's important to, to remember when we talk about businesses, and I've, I work with businesses of all sizes, all the way up to the large enterprise customers. We also do a lot of work with the federal government, and the assumption a lot of people make is, well, everybody knows about it. Everybody's doing something about it. Well, the reality is a business is, is really doing its business. It's not in the business of trying to figure out telecommunication and technology infrastructure. So sometimes even, even the most advanced businesses haven't just paused for a minute to look back and say, wait a second, we might have a problem here. And, and it is something we really need to address in the short term. Grant Ahlbrand (10:29):

Yeah. So sticking on businesses, how dependent are businesses on these landlines? And are there specific industries that are more impacted than others? Max Silber (10:39):

So I think every business in, in one form or another, is dependent on this, even if they don't know that they are. And what I mean by that is, if you have a physical structure, be it a hospital, a retail store, an office building, a depot or warehouse, uh, the, the way you get a certificate of occupancy to be able to open that building is typically because you have a fire alarm. The fire marshal came, did an inspection, made sure your fire alarm was working, and gave you a certificate of occupancy so that you can actually open your business. Well, that, uh, fire alarm typically is tied to a pots line or a copper line. So not having access or not having dependable access, uh, first and foremost really increases the liability of the, of that specific organization. And those are the most common use cases, by the way.
(11:35)
You've got things like fire alarms, security alarms, elevator lines. So if you're ever, hopefully it never happened to you, if you're stuck in the elevator, there's the little call button. That call button is also connected to that, that copper pots landline to be able to call out and say, Hey, I'm stuck in the elevator. Can, can you send the fire department? Can someone come and get me out? So those are all part of the requirements to obviously provide safety while someone is in your structure as a business. Uh, if you don't have those as working services or consistently working dependable services, you obviously are exposing yourself to a massive liability, uh, of, of loss of life, of anything, you know, as far as someone being inconvenienced by being stuck in an elevator and not having, uh, you know, immediate, immediate, uh, assistance because the landline or the copper line isn't working from that perspective.
(12:30)
So every, every business needs that, uh, that level of communication in order to have a certificate of occupancy. And if you don't, it's not only that you could lose the certificate of occupancy, but along the line you will get significant, uh, penalties from the fire marshal in some locations as much as $10,000 a day. So, huge financial implications if you don't have a working, uh, copper line or working, uh, pots line in your, in your, uh, building for all this fire alarm and security alarm and 9 1 1 access. And obviously, ultimately that also will result in a loss of certificate of occupancy, which is essentially they're gonna shut your business down. So really, really important for businesses to take a look at this in the short term. Grant Ahlbrand (13:22):

So, yeah. So now we've, uh, kind of laid out the situation and the, the risks involved. So let's talk about solutions. Um, are the alternatives to copper as reliable? And, um, what does, like you mentioned, a modern POTS transformation look like. Max Silber (13:39):

So modern POTS transformation is, and, and, and they are incredibly reliable because obviously we've now used technology to design something better. We looked at what does a POTS line really do today? Uh, and like I said, the majority of them are still being utilized and, and healthcare, sometimes they're actually being utilized for fax machines, which is crazy to me. But, uh, it is one of the last forms of transmitting paper. Basically, when you sit down at the doctor's office and you fill out the, all the forms, those forms actually need to be transferred to a different, uh, medical facility from one medical facility to another, uh, using a fax machine that's the only compliant, what's called HIPAA compliance to protect your patient data. That's the only HIPAA compliant way to transmit that information from one location to another. So there's, they're still being used for things like fax machines, but more than, but outside of that, the majority are really being utilized for, like I said, fire alarms.
(14:42)
And fire alarms isn't just an indicator that sends a, a call out and says, Hey, you've got a fire alarm. It actually sends specific codes. So as we designed an alternative solution, we have to translate all those fire codes that it actually tells the fire department there. It doesn't tell 'em there's a fire, it tells them there's a fire, and the fire is actually on the left side of the building, and the sensor on the far window is the one that's going off. So it gives them that level of access and that level of detail so that they can come in and obviously put out the fire as quickly as possible. So the ability to translate those codes, the ability to also do the same for, uh, burglar alarms, so we know which window someone just broke, or which door they, they just forced their way into again for law enforcement, so they know exactly where they need to go.
(15:33)
Um, and, and ultimately we designed a solution that, uh, is, is more robust than even the alarm panel itself. So, uh, we designed a solution that has no dependence on power, so it has backup power built into it. Um, and then it also has, uh, redundancy on the network side. So even if it loses the network, it's connected to, it has two redundant cellular connections built into the unit. So now you've got this self-sustained unit. Uh, the deployment of it is really relatively easy. Uh, there is a tech dispatch that goes out. So a tech shows up at a building, uh, they mount and we, we prepare this in advance. They mount a fire retardant board that also that already has all the components mounted on it and ready to connect. And all they do is a simple cross connect, uh, between the existing POTS infrastructure that's already running through the building, um, onto instead of the traditional POTS line going out to the ground, uh, replace that with this digital unit.
(16:41)
Uh, and all that is typically done in a, in a very short timeframe because everything is pre-programmed and prepared in advance. Um, and it provides an immediate, um, replacement for, uh, what is traditional copper. And obviously, you know, essentially overnight not only removes the problem, but also in many of these customer locations, their costs have just skyrocketed because think of a building that had 10 pots lines and was paying, you know, an average of $500 per line, uh, these days. So you are already at $5,000 and now the new solution goes back and normalizes the rate around the $45 a month. So there's a cost savings element. You are obviously putting new infrastructure in place, and you're putting a much more reliable solution, uh, than anything that's available with your existing POTS line, which, which is about to go away. I mean, it is, we, it's been going away for a while, but it's also important to note the FCC recently passed a new legislation that also removes what carriers up until this point had, which was a four step process they have to go through prior to providing customers with a 90 day notice.
(17:55)
Now they don't have to do the four step process. So when a business gets a 90 day notice, they should really act quickly because it's, it's really going to be 90 days going forward. Grant Ahlbrand (18:07):

Yeah. So like, we spent a lot of time here focusing on businesses, and many businesses and many business owners have varying levels of resistance to change. So could you alleviate some of those and inform us on what are some of the biggest hurdles for businesses making this transition and how can they look to overcome them? Max Silber (18:31):

So I, I always think the biggest hurdle is more about education. You know, I think pe-people don't like, you know, the, it's like the old saying, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Uh, so it's, it's really about educating businesses first and foremost, to make sure they understand that there is a problem. That this isn't just about doing something because somebody else says that it's better. There is an actual, uh, significant problem in infrastructure and, and a conversion going on right now. And there is pressure to go through that conversion, not only by your, uh, telco provider, but also by the government, by the FCC that's pushing and allowing, you know, consistently removing any kind of roadblocks of these, uh, phone companies from basically shutting down the service. That's why it's gotten to the point where they don't even need to go through additional steps before just giving you 90 days notice and saying, Hey, 90 days, we're no longer obligated to provide you this service.
(19:32)
Whether you agree with, you know, the price increases or not, we're, we're just gonna shut it off. So I think educating, uh, businesses that are still resistant to it, that yes, it has taken a long time to decommission, but we're kind of, we're, we're there. D-Day is here, so we need to do something about it, uh, really, really quickly. And I think it's also important to educate them because they're, they're ult ultimately getting something better. They're getting a better solution that's more long term, uh, and, and they're getting it at a better price than what they're paying today. Um, and we've seen this throughout industry. And just to give you some examples, you know, we started out, uh, when, when we did this initially a few years ago in, in mass, started doing large deployments for originally a department store, JC Penney. We converted 660 stores nationwide.
(20:27)
And again, this, this, this was a complex problem at the time because every store had a slightly different alarm panel and different requirement, but by standardizing the process, and that's important for businesses to realize as well, it's not complicated. It's now done in a very methodical template where we were able to quickly convert 660 JC penny stores nationwide. We then did, if you see, and, and they're just about everywhere these days, extra space storage, uh, had over 2300 locations nationwide. We did, uh, and, and that was in 41 states. Uh, they had four previous vendors that couldn't kind of figure it out. And we got it all under control. And the best example, and this is what I kind of wake people up, your local post office, the US Postal Service, um, saw the problem. Even the government has this problem. It's not just private business.
(21:23)
They have 17,000 post offices in the United States, uh, some in very, very remote places. We converted every US post office around the country, all 17,000 of them, uh, in around a four month period. So this, even in the largest deployment, in the most complex, uh, deployments, in the most remote places, this can be done relatively simply, uh, in a very methodical way. It provides a much better, much more long-term solution. And ultimately you end up saving money. And I think once businesses know that there should really be no more resistance, uh, to making that transformation. Grant Ahlbrand (22:05):

Yeah. And I really appreciate you kind of touching on some of your, um, biggest achievements there. Like you mentioned with JC Penney, uh, extra Space Storage and the postal service. And so Max, I understand that Met tells the leader in this transformation. And can you, like, you touched on it a bit there, but can you tell us more about MetTel's role and the impact it's making, whether it be services, installation, and just the ongoing support? Max Silber (22:31):

Sure. So, so I, I think for us, we look at everything, uh, not just as a specific technology, but really is our ability to provide, uh, everything under one umbrella as a complete managed service. And I think that's, uh, the important, uh, the, the important part that's really made us a leader in this space is we're not just trying to replace a traditional copper line with a digital box. We're trying to provide the complete solution, the complete experience. So our customers, uh, can rest easy. That whether it's one location, whether it's like the US Postal Service, 17,000 locations, we're going to treat it in the same manner where we're going to do, uh, uh, planning. That's typically in the form of site surveys. We're going to, uh, do project management to figure out exactly when's the right time for each location to get equipment and a tech dispatch going out to do the installation and cut over, obviously based on the business and hours of operations and, and all the components that are important to, to not only transform the technology but really do it in a way that's, uh, does not cause interruption to the business, uh, and is the most impactful long-term, meaning you get the cutover you are, you're ready to go and you don't have to think about it long-term.
(23:54)
And then from a customer, uh, ongoing customer care perspective and monitoring perspective, again, we don't just sell businesses and appliance we provide as a service, and that includes monitoring, uh, the, the device and really making sure everything is fully operational and giving that visibility back to businesses, which is really important to a lot of their own IT teams, uh, and, and is eye-opening. 'cause in many, for many years with copper lines, we didn't actually know if it was working or not. In fact, part of the, the structure of most, uh, commercial buildings is at, at a certain, uh, kind of repeated instance. You have to test them. You have to make sure you still have dial tone. Well, now, once we digitize this entire infrastructure, we can actually see it on dashboards, we can see it on alerts. We know when something needs to be reset, we know when something is transmitting.
(24:52)
We have all that level of detail and we give that visibility back to our customers. And I, I, I think that's the most important part of treating this as a complete managed service. And that's why we, we are a leader. That's why we've been recognized by, uh, large analyst communities like, uh, Gardner on their magic quadrant now for five straight years as one of their leaders, as a MA managed network services provider, because we account for all those elements and then provide that consistency in as far as experience and as far as spend the cost of the service back to our customers. And that simplifies the process, and it usually alleviates any concerns around going through that transformation for our customers. Grant Ahlbrand (25:38):

Yeah, for sure. I really appreciated the way you kind of just laid out both from your perspective and the business owner's perspective, because oftentimes they're in a situation where they just wanna do the best thing for their business. And without the added information, and like you said, the education about the situation as a whole, um, they just aren't really familiar with what's out there. Um, so switching gears just a little bit, um, do you see regulation playing a bigger role in moving this transition forward? And is there still hesitation among carriers and states with this issue? Max Silber (26:14):

So I think, I think I definitely see regulation, and we've seen regulation taking, uh, a position here. And I think they, they should because part of what regulation is, uh, the Federal Communication Commission, it really exists to provide the best as far as services, uh, to its clientele, which is the citizens of the United States. And when they saw this problem early on, um, they, they first tried to pass regulation to put it in the hands of the carriers to fix the problem. They did that by saying, you, you can no longer regulate, or we will no longer regulate how much you charge for the service. So that then the carriers said, okay, in that case, uh, I wanna decommission a plant in a specific zip code. Uh, I'm gonna send everyone notices in that zip code that their rates are gonna double or triple. And they did that.
(27:06)
Uh, but, but then customers still had the choice. They could choose whether to pay more or they could choose whether to look at alternate digital solutions. And it took a while for customers to really, you know, kind of first they kind of took it as well, rates are going up, it is what it is. Uh, but I think it, so, so the FCC did initially make that move. Now the fact that they're stepping back in and saying, okay, this is, this is kind of getting crazy. Now, you know, in some areas, like I said, people pay as much as a thousand dollars for a single line for dial tone. Uh, at this point, they're now allowing carriers to just force the issue. They're removing those additional four steps they have to take before providing 90 days of notice. And after those 90 days, they can shut off service, they have no obligation.
(27:55)
And the FCC is allowing them to have no obligation. So if after 90 days there's a fire in your building and the code, the fire alarm code doesn't go out because you have no connectivity, that's on you as a business owner, that's a, the responsibility of the business occupying that structure. And that's a massive liability. That's type of liability is so, is something that, uh, is, is essentially a business ending type of liability. So that's really something that people should, should certainly not, uh, take lightly. So certainly the FCC is continuing in its steps to try to force, uh, companies to make that change because they want them to be on a better service. They need them to kind of go through that digital transformation. I think from a carrier perspective, they do really want to decommission these plants because it's a huge cost item for them to continue to maintain them.
(28:51)
Um, I think they were kind of in a little bit of a holding pattern for about a, a year to two years, and they certainly benefited from the revenue of the increase in the fees that they were charging. Uh, but I think ultimately, like I said, some of the machinery that creates that dial tone over copper, they don't even manufacture the parts for it anymore. So now it's just a question of, you know, tearing down old plants and then reusing parts to try to keep other plants going. And, and just doing that is, has obviously no longevity, uh, as far as a plan. So it's just a matter of time before they just issue announcements for all the locations. And, and there's a lot of announcements out there. You see at and t putting them out there, you see Verizon putting out their statements about how they're, they are planning to decommission, uh, just about all their plans in the coming months or over the next year.
(29:47)
So businesses really need to get ahead of it. Um, we get panic calls all the time. Uh, what I encourage businesses is don't wait until you get that notice and then say, oh, great, I got nine days. Well, it, it, it takes a while to obviously plan this out, do it in a way that's least, uh, impactful to the business. So don't wait until you get your 90 day notice. Uh, look at your inventory now or bring in a player like a MetTel or someone else in the business, uh, to, to look at what you have as far as your existing line infrastructure, your existing, uh, pots line invoices, and be able to, based off that, put together a program and a plan to quickly do the, the conversion before you start getting those notices. Grant Ahlbrand (30:34):

Okay. Yeah. So for me, I always, with any kind of topic, I love looking at it geographically. So I grew up in a really small town, went to college in a town probably about four times as big, but still not huge. And then now I live in a pretty, uh, a relatively big city. So I always love comparing and contrasting my experiences and each of those three places. So with this transformation, is this mainly a rural problem? Or are urban areas facing similar challenges? Max Silber (31:05):

Yeah, it's, it's, it's really an, a nationwide problem. Uh, whether you are in a rural or urban, um, you, you really have to face the fact that this type of technology is going away altogether. You have, certainly in rural com communities, you have a little bit of a infrastructure gap. So it's more about structure by structure, going through that conversion. In urban areas we find more common, you'll have something like, you know, especially in an old, I'm in New York, in an older city like New York, you might have a, a copper, a conduit that carries copper collapse, and once that conduit collapses, they're not ever gonna think of putting new copper in that conduit. Yeah. So then, you know, you are, you're almost overnight under this, you know, un under the pressure of having to quickly convert in rural areas is is typically where we, we get those stories of, yeah, well I still get the copper line still works, but it doesn't work when it rains, you know, because it, the, the water's penetrating the ground type of thing.
(32:13)
But the problem is nationwide, uh, you, you have to look ahead, you have to go through that digital, uh, transformation. You have to do it, uh, really, really soon because, you know, when, when we talk about this topic a year from now, we will be talking more about the impact of which businesses didn't take steps, uh, quick enough, and which ones kind of had to suffer through that process of having to be forced onto the conversion versus planning and doing it in, in a good, meaningful, meaningful way that creates the least amount of business interruption as you're going through that, uh, transformation. And it is the future. You know, I, I try to explain to everyone, you know, you, it's time to cut your copper cord and move to the future, uh, and, and, you know, eventually this copper is just gonna fade to black. Grant Ahlbrand (33:05):

Yeah. So you just touched on the future there. So let's, let's hop in the time machine really quick. And let's say you go to 2030 and the world has folded out as you kind of saw it, um, with the transformation and the way that you wanted it. Uh, how do you envision in this alternate timeline how businesses and public safety benefited from this transformation? Max Silber (33:31):

So I think the concept is, it's, it's almost like you're transforming a necessity product into what I call a pillar or an original pillar of technology. Today, all you're trying to do is you're trying to replace your basic requirement for having a, uh, a certificate of occupancy for a specific structure. And, and again, whatever industry you're in, healthcare, retail, manufacturing. So depend, regardless of which type of structure you have, you're just trying to, to keep to code and obviously provide the most safety, uh, with newer technology for your employees, for your visitors, your customers, anyone that comes in contact with that structure. But really what you're doing when you're putting a, a, an infrastructure, a new infrastructure in place with a digitally transformed, uh, product, in this case a pots transformation, uh, installation, is you're putting a PIL pillar of a device that has a wire that has backup from a network perspective with wireless backup, has power backup, it also has compute.
(34:40)
And as soon as you've put compute, we talk about things like ai, we talk about things like access at the edge. You are now adding another point. You're adding an edge device that you can build on with additional services. So the next type of service you wanna deploy, digital service you wanna deploy in your infrastructure, may not require an additional component anymore, may not require an additional installation or tech dispatch to do that, because once you have the compute on site, everything can be done from a software perspective. So we could theoretically by 2030, we'll be pushing upgrades over the air to that digital endpoint that then could benefit the business. So it is a pillar, it's a starting point once you go through that conversion. And, and at that point as a business, you have greater access and greater flexibility to new technologies without having to incur additional cost to deploy those technologies, like I said, with appliances or with things like human tech dispatch to do new installations. So that's, that's where I hope when we look back in 2030, we'll look at this as a great pivotal point, not only to fix an immediate problem, but really to, to, to set that business on course to be able to digitally transform its the, the rest of the components of its business and do it in a, in a cost effective, in a, in a much more manageable way. Grant Ahlbrand (36:12):

So yeah. At, at the end of, at the end of every podcast, we love to ask listeners of this episode, what, what should they take away from this conversation, whether they be fellow industry insiders or business owners or anything. So what would you like the people listening to this episode to take away? Max Silber (36:35):

The first is Copper Retirement is here. Uh, it's, it's, it's only a matter of months at this point before you lose service. So, uh, start acting immediately. Uh, don't let your business get stranded. Uh, make sure that you know that, you know, you cut the, the, it's time to cut that copper cord. Move to the future. Today, obviously copper is going to shut down and obviously MetTel's here to help. Grant Ahlbrand (37:06):

Well, max, this has been a fascinating discussion and showed the real urgency of retiring copper landlines and hearing from you the innovative solutions that are driving this digital transformation has just been absolutely great because as someone, myself, and I'm, I'm new to this space as an employee and being able to just learn about all different kind of corners of just cutting edge innovation and technology is just super fascinating to me. And I'm, I'm very sure that our listeners will think the same way. So thank you for joining us today on podcast. Max Silber (37:42):

Thank you for having me Grant Ahlbrand (37:52):

Again. We've been talking with Max Silver Vice President of Mobility and IOT at MetTel. All include links to their website and more resources about the POTS transformation. I'm Grant Al Brandand. Thanks for listening to Connected Nation. If you like our show and wanna know more, visit connected nation.org or find the latest episodes on Apple Podcast iHeartRadio, Google Podcast, Pandora or Spotify.

People on this episode

Head Shot

Jessica Denson

Host