The Challenge: Aging Lines, Elevator Failures, and a Copper Sunset

KCDC’s first major issue hit a high-rise. The elevator emergency lines failed, and the analog wiring behind them was too old to swap out cleanly. Replacement meant navigating long cable runs across multiple floors, brittle wiring, and tight budgets. As Eric Bellamy of KCDC put it, “Once an elevator emergency line goes out, it gets noticed fast.”

At the same time, the team saw the copper sunset coming. “We knew a few years ago that we were getting close to those lines starting to sunset, and now they are pushing hard to get people off them,” Bellamy said. The exposure was clear: operational interruptions, safety risk, compliance concerns, and rising carrier costs.

Why KCDC Chose RCN for POTS Line Replacement

Local partnership and proven reliability were the differentiators. “You guys were local, which meant we didn’t have to go through a lot of hoops if we needed something fixed or needed quick service,” Bellamy said. “You also had a good reputation. That goes a long way for us.”

A trusted vendor relationship mattered. KCDC favors long-term partners who respond quickly, communicate clearly, and treat the customer as more than a line item.

Deployment: A Smooth, Phased Rollout

KCDC started with a proof of concept on its elevator lines. Installation and onboarding went cleanly. “Once we got a solution in place and saw how it worked, we moved forward with using it across the board,” Bellamy said. With the first deployment proven, KCDC phased POTS Link into its remaining elevator lines as the backbone of its modernization.

Results: Quiet, Reliable, and Off the Analog Grid

For emergency systems, quiet is the goal. “If it works, that’s all you care about. And once you put it in place, you prefer it to stay quiet. That’s been our experience.” The transition also let KCDC retire problematic legacy systems. The team is down to one remaining line before fully shutting off its old Centrix system.

Not About Cutting Cost, About Eliminating Risk

Because KCDC’s old Centrix lines had not yet seen steep rate increases, the value was not monthly savings, it was modernization and reliability. “For us, it wasn’t about savings. It was about modernizing what was out there and maintaining reliability. Your equipment is rated for emergency lines, and that mattered,” Bellamy said. That shift also insulated KCDC from the POTS price spikes hitting organizations nationwide, where per-line costs have climbed from roughly $20 a month into the hundreds, and in some markets far higher.

The Bottom Line

KCDC modernized its emergency communications by replacing aging, unreliable POTS lines with RCN’s POTS Link. The service delivered:

• Reliable elevator and alarm connectivity
• Quick installation with minimal disruption
• Local, responsive support and a trusted partner relationship
• A clean exit from a failing legacy copper network
• Long-term modernization and compliance peace of mind

For organizations running emergency infrastructure on copper, KCDC’s experience is a template: POTS Link is not only a way to cut a bill, it is a way to take risk off the table before the lines fail.