Why copper is going away
The copper network that carried landline calls and ADSL or VDSL broadband is decades old, expensive to maintain and now carries a shrinking share of traffic. In areas where fibre is available, the owner of the copper network is withdrawing it in stages, and in some rural areas copper is being replaced with wireless or satellite services. Timing differs by street and by region, so there is no single national date that applies to everyone.
Usually the first sign is a letter or email from your phone or internet provider saying your address is in a withdrawal area, followed by reminders as the cut-off approaches. Do not treat those notices as junk mail. Ask your provider directly when your address is scheduled and how much notice they will give, because the date in the letter is the date things stop working, not the date work should begin.
What is actually plugged into copper
Most offices know about their main phone line. The surprises are the other things quietly using a copper pair: a monitored burglar or fire alarm that dials the monitoring centre, an older EFTPOS terminal that connects over a phone line, a fax machine nobody admits to using, a lift emergency phone, a gate or door intercom, a medical alert pendant in a staff member's home, or a building management panel that reports faults by dialling out.
Walk the building with whoever manages the premises. Look at the wall sockets and follow the cables. Check the alarm panel for a phone cable, ask the EFTPOS supplier how each terminal connects, and ask the landlord or body corporate about lift and fire panel lines, because those are often billed to the building rather than to you. Write every device, its location, its line number and who pays for it on one list.
Phones and broadband: the easy part
Ordinary calls move to a cloud phone system running over fibre, or to Microsoft Teams calling, and your existing numbers can usually be ported across so customers notice nothing. If you still have ADSL or VDSL broadband, the replacement is a fibre connection where one is available, or fixed wireless or satellite where it is not. Order the fibre first, because installation can take weeks and the phone move depends on it.
Once the new connection is live, run the old and new services side by side for a short period. Make test calls in and out, check voicemail reaches the right inbox, and confirm caller ID shows your business number. Only then ask for the copper service to be cancelled, so you are not left without phones in the gap between one service ending and the next one working.
Alarms, EFTPOS and lifts need their own plan
These devices are the reason the switch-off causes real problems. A monitored alarm that can no longer reach its monitoring company looks fine on the keypad but will not call anyone when it triggers. Most alarm companies now fit a cellular or IP communicator; book that with them, then ask for a test signal to be sent and confirmed. EFTPOS terminals generally move to IP over your network or to a built-in mobile connection, and your payment provider can tell you which applies.
Lift phones and some fire panels are a building responsibility with compliance requirements, so the landlord or building manager must arrange the change with the lift or fire contractor. Your role as a tenant is to ask the question early and get confirmation in writing. If you own the building, put it at the top of the list, because a lift phone that cannot connect is a safety issue, not an inconvenience.
A practical order of work
Start with the audit, then order fibre or a suitable alternative. While you wait for installation, contact the alarm, EFTPOS and lift suppliers so their changes are booked for the same window. Next, set up the new phone system and port your numbers. Finally, test everything on your list, record the results, and cancel the copper services only when each item has passed.
Allow two to three months from first letter to finished job if you have several devices, and more if your building needs new cabling or landlord approval. Leaving it until the final fortnight is how businesses end up with an alarm that silently stopped reporting or an EFTPOS terminal that fails on a busy Saturday. An early start costs nothing extra and takes the pressure off.
Power cuts change after the move
Copper phone lines carried their own power from the exchange, so a basic handset kept working during a power cut. Fibre and cloud phones need power at your premises: the fibre box, the router and any desk phones all stop when the mains does. For most offices, mobile phones cover a short outage, but if you rely on a landline for safety or for a monitored alarm, talk to your provider about battery backup options.
A small UPS on the fibre terminal and router keeps the internet and cloud phones alive for a while, and alarm communicators usually have their own battery. Ask each supplier how long their device runs without power. If anyone in your business depends on a landline for health reasons, raise it with your provider, as they may have obligations to help with an alternative.
In short
- Copper is retired area by area, so ask your provider for your address's date.
- Audit every device on copper, not just phone handsets.
- Alarms, EFTPOS and lift phones need their own supplier booked early.
- Run old and new services side by side and test before cancelling copper.
- Fibre phones need power, so plan for outages.