Overview and Advantages of POTS Alternatives

The October 19th Telarus Tuesday Call welcomed Kevin Bednarz, National Channel Manager, and Cathe Shandle, Director of Sales Operations, at Granite Channels.

On this call, Granite discussed their acquisition of EPIK and how it relates to being a POTS alternative.  Their presentation included a brief overview of their POTS devices and their usability for customers.  They also shared the technical specifications that allow the EPIK devices to adhere to FCC compliance. The entire recording is available here.

About Granite

Team up with Granite. Granite provides one-stop solutions for voice, data, Internet, wireless, video, and secure network options throughout the United States and Canada. Granite understands that no two businesses are run the same way and will create a flexible communications solution tailored to each customer’s needs today and in the future. Granite’s scalability allows your business to grow with imminent demand.

Overview and Advantages of POTS Alternatives

EPIK

EPIK (Ethernet POTS Integration Kit) was founded in 2016 and launched in early 2017 specifically to address a few telecom challenges that most companies experience as the world moves from legacy facilities based-solutions to could-based solutions:

• To deliver a reliable, cost-effective, and, most importantly, fully compliant solution to replace “specialty” copper POTS lines, without the limitations and “vulnerabilities” of cloud solutions with a primary focus on Fire-Life Safety- and Fax.
• To provide high-speed 4G LTE Internet back-up for customers who are “single-threaded” to the internet and depend on the cloud for many business functions – voice, data, video. UCaaS deployments.

EPIK’s unique and robust design that incorporates 4GLTE, Ethernet, and Soft-Switch technology into a single appliance addresses these challenges and many more, enabling EPIK Edge to become the recognized leader in the industry.  EPIK Edge fills in the missing puzzle pieces that help “Complete any Telecom solution without Competing with them” and makes EPIK Edge:

• The ultimate COMPANION PRODUCT for all UCaaS deployments.
• A robust ‘bridge solution” that enables emerging technologies to be incorporated into legacy telecom solutions.

The State of POTS – Situation and Challenges

Because of joint efforts from the leading telecom companies to decommission copper lines, POTS has increased cost that forces customers to search for alternatives.

A solid solution is using EPIK. They can handle all fire, help and, safety lines and are also able to meet code requirements and be in compliance with FCC regulations.

POTS has been the backbone of voice services since the origination of the telecom industry. TDM hard-wired copper infrastructure, while lacking in features, is highly reliable and self-powered, providing an always-up solution required by many specialty devices (alarms, elevators, emergency voice lines – e911). Today, ILECS are a directing investment in emerging technologies (Fiber and 5G wireless services) and are looking to decommission and replace the copper network.

Granite EPIK: How it works

Granite EPIK is an MFVN (Managed Facilities Voiced Network) replacement for existing POTS lines that deliver cost savings, reliability, and availability with an all-in-one solution.

• Rack- or wall-mounted Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) that uses both 4G LTE, and customer-provided internet
• Up to 8 specialty analog phone lines with RJ-11, 66-block, or RJ21X hand-off.
• Direct replacement of existing POTS (all types). EPIK supports both loop-start lines and ground-start trunks.
• Advanced Edge device with SBC IAD capabilities to process and deliver SIP services and hand-off in any required format – including PRI, CAS T1, and Native SIP. SIP services have auto-failover to 4G LTE in an Internet outage.
• Internal Li-ion battery provides 24-hour standby power, with
• 6-hour capacity under full voice call usage.
• Dual-SIM capable of diverse wireless carriers for the highest reliability.
• Automatic Internet Failover option, utilizing 4G LTE Data plan.
• Advanced security with end-to-edge encryption on all calls and faxes on a private LTE network.

Granite can deliver customers EPIK devices within 30 days. It will include “white glove” installation and cross-connect.

For more detailed information discussed in the call, please watch the recording on YouTube! The entire recording is available here.

To learn more about Granite, visit www.granitenet.com