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CASE STUDY

How the City of Round Rock Replaced Legacy POTS Lines with a Modern, Cellular-Based Solution

Details

Location: Round Rock, Texas
Deployment: Over 200 POTS lines across 49 city facilities
Use Case: Emergency communications, community pool emergency lines, municipal facility communications
Previous Provider: Verizon and AT&T (legacy POTS infrastructure)
Challenge: Imminent POTS sunset, rising costs, lack of visibility, and hundreds of phantom lines draining budget
Solution Selected: RCN Technologies’ POTS Link (cellular-based replacement solution)

Are Your Legacy Phone Lines Putting Your Organization at Risk?

The City of Round Rock, Texas, faced a critical infrastructure challenge that many public sector organizations are encountering: the imminent sunset of traditional Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS) lines. For Ramsey Saad and his team, this wasn’t just a hypothetical concern—it was becoming a pressing operational reality.

With over 200 POTS lines spread across 49 city facilities, Round Rock was dealing with a complex web of legacy communications infrastructure. But the challenge went deeper than simply finding replacements for aging technology.

As line rates continued to climb, the city faced another significant problem: they didn’t have a clear picture of which lines were actually necessary. Over the years, their POTS infrastructure had become opaque—some lines were critical and in active use, while others were “phantom lines” that remained on the billing but were connected to nothing, draining the city’s budget while providing no value.

Adding urgency to the situation, the city needed to replace emergency lines at several community pools before an imminent Memorial Day weekend deadline—when families across Round Rock would be counting on those facilities being open and safe.

Why Round Rock Chose RCN

The city explored multiple options for replacing its legacy POTS infrastructure. Tellingly, representatives from both Verizon and AT&T independently recommended RCN Technologies’ POTS Link, an endorsement that helped validate the decision. POTS Link is a cellular-based alternative that delivers the reliability of traditional landlines with the resiliency and future-proof architecture of modern wireless.

Before deploying anything, RCN ran detailed site surveys at all 49 city facilities to separate the lines that mattered from the ones that did not. The exercise paid for itself: well over 100 lines were identified as unnecessary phantom lines and turned down immediately, a substantial monthly saving before the new solution’s efficiencies even entered the picture. For the first time in years, Round Rock had a clear picture of its own communications infrastructure.

Deployment: Moving Before the Contract

The pools could not wait. With little more than a week before the Memorial Day deadline, RCN deployed POTS Link to the community pool locations, remarkably, without a contract even in place. “Before we had a full agreement with you guys, y’all were very flexible with us in deploying solutions, and that was much appreciated,” said Ramsey Saad of the City of Round Rock.

That flexibility carried through the rest of the rollout. Whether it was getting community pools operational for the summer season or meeting construction deadlines at new municipal building sites, RCN’s team worked to the city’s timeline rather than the other way around.

The Results: Lower Cost, Compliance, and Pools Open On Time

The transition delivered more than a like-for-like replacement. Eliminating well over 100 phantom lines produced immediate, substantial monthly savings. The community pools opened on schedule for Memorial Day weekend with reliable emergency communications in place. Across all 49 facilities, the modern, network-based architecture simplified management and gave the city visibility it had never had.

POTS Link also met the requirements a municipality cannot compromise on: cellular-based reliability across multiple networks instead of aging copper, integration with existing low-voltage infrastructure, 8-port gateways that scale, and compliance with NFPA 72 (fire), ASME A17.1 (elevator), UL standards, and federal Enhanced E911. For procurement, it is available on OMNIA Partners, GSA, and Sourcewell. As Saad put it, “Going to a more modern solution that’s cellular-based and network-based within your facility like the RCN solution is a good and better alternative with operational improvement.”

Looking Ahead: POTS Link as the Standard

Round Rock no longer treats this as a one-time replacement. “We’re planning on continuing to use POTS Link as the standard for our new buildings,” Saad said, a commitment the city has built into its approach for new development.

A Partnership That Moved at the City’s Speed

“RCN holds a lot of heart for our government agencies. We know anything that distracts their IT and public safety teams from serving their constituents is a liability. When Round Rock needed us to move fast to get their pools open, contracts didn’t matter. Making sure those families could enjoy Memorial Day in the city sure did.”– Reed Perryman, Vice President of Sales, RCN Technologies

Saad credited that hands-on partnership directly: “Reed was actually a part of it. I know he’s not on the operational side, but he was a big part of scrambling resources for me when we were vetting the solution, getting those pools open, and hitting deadlines at the construction sites.”

The Bottom Line

The City of Round Rock replaced more than 200 legacy POTS lines across 49 facilities with RCN’s POTS Link, cut well over 100 phantom lines, opened its pools on time for Memorial Day, and standardized on POTS Link for new construction. It is a template for any public sector organization facing the same copper sunset: find the lines that matter, retire the ones that don’t, and move to a cellular solution before the deadline forces the decision.

Advice for Other Public Sector Organizations

“There is a real timeline. I’ve received real letters, and then I’ve seen those changes in service. If you’re going to stay on them, it’s probably going to be more and more painful in the future.”– Ramsey Saad, City of Round Rock

POTS Line Replacement FAQs

Why did the City of Round Rock replace its POTS lines?

Round Rock faced the sunset of traditional POTS service across more than 200 lines in 49 facilities, rising line rates, and an urgent need to replace community pool emergency lines before Memorial Day. RCN's POTS Link replaced the copper with a cellular-based solution and hit the deadline.

What are phantom POTS lines, and how much can removing them save?

Phantom lines are POTS lines still on the bill but connected to nothing. A site survey of all 49 Round Rock facilities found well over 100 of them, which were turned down immediately for substantial monthly savings before any new-solution efficiencies.

Is POTS Link compliant for municipal emergency and elevator lines?

Yes. POTS Link supports NFPA 72 (fire), ASME A17.1 (elevator), UL standards, and federal Enhanced E911, and it is available on the OMNIA Partners, GSA, and Sourcewell cooperative contracts for public sector procurement.

How fast can POTS Link be deployed for an urgent deadline?

Fast. RCN deployed POTS Link to Round Rock's community pools in little more than a week, before a contract was even in place, so the pools opened on schedule for Memorial Day weekend.

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