Wireless Insights
Area of Refuge Phone Line: Every Floor Rides on One Copper Pair
IBC 1009.8 puts a two-way call station on every accessible floor. After hours, all of them dial out on the same analog line, and copper in AT&T's D2 wire centers can be discontinued on or after November 15, 2026.
Trace your life-safety linesIt is 7:40 on a weeknight at a county administration building. The fire alarm is sounding, the elevators have recalled, and a staff member who uses a wheelchair is waiting at the fourth-floor elevator landing. She presses the call button on the two-way communication station, exactly as the posted instructions say. The lobby security desk that answers those calls closed at six. So the system does what the building code told it to do: it dials out. The call goes to a monitoring company over an analog line that terminates on a copper pair in a basement telephone room.
That line is the area of refuge phone line, and in a typical installation it is the only path off the property for every call station in the building. Nobody inspects it as a telephone line. It is not on the elevator permit or the fire alarm permit in any obvious way. And it is exactly the kind of legacy copper service carriers are now retiring on a published schedule.
Short answer: Under IBC Section 1009.8, required landing stations = elevator banks x accessible floors above or below the level of exit discharge, unless an area of refuge on that floor carries the station instead. The station count scales with the building. The dial-out does not. Every station reports to one central control point, and when that point is not staffed 24 hours a day, Section 1009.8.1 requires a timed automatic telephone dial-out to a monitoring location or 9-1-1. An eight-story building with two elevator banks and an accessible basement has 16 landing stations and, in a typical installation, one analog line behind all of them. In AT&T's D2 wire centers, copper voice service can be discontinued on or after November 15, 2026.
What IBC 1009.8 requires from area of refuge two-way communication
Area of refuge two-way communication exists because people who cannot use the stairs need a way to say where they are and be heard. The International Building Code handles it in two places, and the language is short enough to read in full.
- Section 1009.8 requires a two-way communication system at the landing serving each elevator or bank of elevators on each accessible floor that is one or more stories above or below the level of exit discharge.
- Section 1009.8.1 requires the system to connect each required location to the fire command center or a central control point approved by the fire department. Where that central control point is not constantly attended, the system must have a timed automatic telephone dial-out capability to a monitoring location or 9-1-1. It must include both audible and visible signals.
- Section 1009.8.2 requires posted directions for using the system, instructions for summoning assistance, and written identification of the location, adjacent to each station.
- Areas of refuge carry the same two-way communication requirement under Section 1009.6, and a compliant system inside an area of refuge satisfies the landing requirement for that floor.
The code lists exceptions, including floors served by compliant ramps, landings that serve only freight or service elevators outside the accessible route, and private residence elevators. Check the edition your jurisdiction adopted, because state amendments add and renumber. California's 2019 building code, for example, placed the area of refuge provision at Section 1009.6.5.
The phrase that matters for copper retirement is "timed automatic telephone dial-out." A security desk staffed from 7 to 6 is not constantly attended. For the other 13 hours of every weekday and all weekend, the dial-out is the system.
| Requirement | What it says | Where the phone line enters |
|---|---|---|
| IBC 1009.8 | Two-way station at each elevator landing on accessible floors above or below exit discharge | Sets how many stations depend on the line |
| IBC 1009.8.1 | Stations reach the fire command center or an approved central control point; timed automatic dial-out when that point is not constantly attended | The dial-out is the off-premises path, typically an analog line at the master panel |
| NFPA 72 24.10 (2016) | Pathways between remote stations and the central control point monitored for integrity; timed automatic connection to a constantly attended monitoring location when the control point is unattended | Monitoring covers the pathways inside the building, not the copper leaving it |
The code watches the wiring inside the building, not the copper leaving it
NFPA 72 is strict about the inside of the system. In the 2016 edition, Section 24.10.4 requires that all pathways between the remote area of refuge stations and the central control point be monitored for integrity. Cut a station cable and the master panel knows.
The dial-out line is different. It is a service the building buys from a carrier, and when the carrier discontinues it, the stations still light, the lobby console still rings, and the weekday test at 10 a.m. still passes because a person answers at the desk. The failure only shows up at night, on a weekend, or during an evacuation, which is the only time the dial-out is doing any work. Whether the master panel even reports a dead line depends on the make and age of the panel. Many were installed on the assumption that copper would always be there.
That assumption now has dates attached
- October 15, 2025. AT&T's grandfathering took effect, and new copper voice and specialty line orders are no longer accepted. A building that loses its dial-out line cannot simply reorder it.
- January 13, 2026. An AT&T discontinuance application covering wire centers that serve roughly 90,000 customers across 18 states was automatically granted, a footprint the company described as more than 30 percent of its copper.
- March 26, 2026. The FCC adopted its Network and Services Modernization Order, setting a uniform 31-day automatic grant for discontinuance applications and asserting preemption of state rules that would delay federally authorized retirements.
- November 15, 2026. The date on or after which AT&T may discontinue copper voice service in its D2 wire centers.
Copper retirement carries a minimum 90-day notice period. That notice goes to the account holder of record, which for a dial-out line installed with the building is often a general contractor, a former property manager, or a department that no longer exists.
Your fire department decides what counts, and they do not agree
The model code says "dial-out." It does not say copper, cellular, or anything else about the path. That decision belongs to the authority having jurisdiction, and published local standards show how differently AHJs read the same section.
| Authority | What its published guidance requires |
|---|---|
| Seattle Fire Department, CAM 5122 (updated January 2025) | Timed automatic telephone dial-out to a monitoring location when the control point is unattended. Battery or approved alternate power for 90 minutes of use. Inspection and testing every year. |
| Santa Clara County Fire Department two-way communication standard (revised May 2021) | Automatic voice dial-out to a central monitoring location providing 24-hour service when the control point is not attended 24/7/365. Secondary power calculations showing 24 hours of battery backup. |
| North Carolina State Construction Office (December 15, 2022) | Published POTS replacement requirements covering fire alarm, elevator and area of refuge systems. Replacement options on state projects require approval from the State Construction Office as the AHJ. |
Ninety minutes in Seattle, 24 hours in Santa Clara County, and a state that wants to approve the replacement path before you install it. None of these is wrong. They are different jurisdictions answering the same question, and they are the reason a replacement plan starts with the AHJ rather than with the hardware.
Two power numbers are also easy to confuse. The area of refuge master panel has its own secondary power requirement. The device carrying the dial-out needs its own backup long enough to match it, or the panel will keep running through an outage with nothing to dial out on.
Five questions that find the line before the carrier does
Most facilities teams can answer these in an afternoon with a flashlight and the as-built drawings.
- Where is the master panel? Usually at the fire command center, a lobby security desk, or an engineering office. The dial-out line terminates there.
- Is the central control point staffed around the clock? If not, the dial-out is live every night. If it is, confirm what happens when that post is vacated during an evacuation.
- Who does it call? A monitoring company, or 9-1-1 directly. A panel that dials 9-1-1 raises location questions the replacement has to answer.
- Is the pair shared? Area of refuge panels, elevator phones, and fire alarm communicators sometimes land on adjacent pairs or on the same line. Trace each one to the demarcation point.
- Which wire center serves the address, and when? Scattered public buildings often span several wire centers on different dates.
A building with elevators almost always has more than one analog life-safety line. The area of refuge dial-out is simply the one most likely to be missing from the line inventory, because it was installed by the security contractor rather than ordered by the telephone coordinator.
How RCN replaces the area of refuge phone line without touching the stations
The stations, the master panel and the building cabling can all stay. What changes is the path off the property. RCN Technologies treats that dial-out as one line in a full-building area of refuge phone line replacement project, surveyed and converted alongside the elevator and fire alarm lines it usually sits next to.
POTS Link presents a standard analog line to the existing master panel, so the auto-dialer dials exactly as it did on copper. It supports up to eight lines per device, carries 24 hours of battery backup, and runs dual-carrier LTE and 5G so a single carrier issue is not a single point of failure. It is code-compliant for NFPA 72 fire alarm transmission and ASME A17.1 elevator communication, the two systems that most often share a telephone room with the area of refuge panel. RCN's 24/7 NOC monitors every POTS Link device, which puts the off-premises path under active watch for the first time in the building's life.
The sequence matters more than the hardware:
- A site survey traces every analog pair to the system it serves and confirms signal at the telephone room, which is often in a basement.
- The AHJ's requirements come first: secondary power, dial-out destination, test documentation.
- Numbers the monitoring company recognizes are ported while the copper is still live.
- Each line is tested against the system it serves, after hours, with the central control point deliberately unattended so the dial-out actually fires.
Procurement does not need to add months. POTS Link is available on GSA Schedule, NASPO ValuePoint, Sourcewell, OMNIA Partners and Equalis Group. At a 19-day average from signature to activation, a building in a D2 wire center that signs by late October has room to finish before November 15. For the rest of the building, the elevator line conversion guide and the POTS line replacement checklist cover the neighboring lines, and the wire center shutdown tracker gives you the date for each address.
Find the line behind your refuge stations before the carrier does
One site survey traces the area of refuge dial-out, the elevator phones and the fire alarm communicator back to the pairs they ride on, and tells you which wire center dates apply. Available on GSA Schedule, NASPO ValuePoint, Sourcewell, OMNIA Partners and Equalis Group.
Talk to a POTS Replacement SpecialistFrequently asked questions
What is an area of refuge phone line?
An area of refuge phone line is the telephone service a two-way communication master panel uses to dial out when its central control point is unattended. IBC Section 1009.8.1 requires that timed automatic dial-out to a monitoring location or 9-1-1, and in a typical installation it rides on a single analog line.
Does IBC 1009.8 require a phone line?
No. IBC 1009.8.1 requires a timed automatic telephone dial-out capability when the central control point is not constantly attended, but it does not specify copper. The authority having jurisdiction decides which replacement paths it accepts.
How many two-way communication stations does a building need?
Multiply elevator banks by accessible floors above or below the level of exit discharge. An eight-story building with two elevator banks and an accessible basement needs 16 landing stations unless areas of refuge on those floors carry the stations instead.
What happens to area of refuge systems when copper is retired?
The stations keep working inside the building, but the off-premises dial-out stops. Calls placed while the central control point is unattended have nowhere to go, and whether the master panel reports the dead line depends on its make and age.
Can a cellular line carry area of refuge dial-out?
Yes, where the authority having jurisdiction accepts it. POTS Link presents a standard analog line to the existing master panel, so the auto-dialer works unchanged, and RCN documents the conversion for the AHJ.
How much backup power does an area of refuge dial-out need?
It depends on the jurisdiction. Seattle Fire Department guidance calls for 90 minutes of battery or alternate power, while Santa Clara County Fire Department asks for calculations showing 24 hours. The dial-out device should match the master panel's requirement.
When can AT&T discontinue copper in D2 wire centers?
On or after November 15, 2026. AT&T stopped accepting new copper voice orders on October 15, 2025, so a dial-out line lost after discontinuance cannot simply be reordered.
Speak with a Connectivity Expert
Speak with a POTS Replacement Specialist about replacing your CenturyLink lines before the next notice arrives.
Want to Learn More?
Request a custom quote.