What Enterprises Must Do Now to Protect Building Safety Systems
Across the U.S., incumbent local exchange carriers (ILECs) are moving faster to retire legacy copper infrastructure. Many enterprises still see “copper retirement” as a telecom issue that affects old voice lines or fax machines in rural areas. In reality, the impact is more urgent. Copper retirements increasingly disrupt the analog connectivity that keeps life-safety and building-critical systems working in commercial facilities nationwide.
Recent data also shows a clear shift. The time between a carrier announcing retirement and the actual shutdown date is shrinking. Organizations now have far less time to react. The systems at risk are often the ones that create the most exposure when they fail, including fire panels, burglar alarms, elevator emergency phones, emergency call boxes, gate controls, and alarm dialers. These systems were installed years ago and they continue to operate quietly until something breaks.
Carriers are accelerating the move away from copper
Over the past few years, carriers have reduced the average time from notice to retirement by 78 days. Enterprises can no longer assume long planning windows.
TABLE 1: Days from Notice to Implementation of Carrier Wire Center Retirements
This trend reveals what carriers now prioritize. It also signals that enterprises with building safety systems must prepare as soon as possible.
The Trend: Notice windows are collapsing
Earlier retirement plans provided long schedules, often hundreds of days to plan upgrades. Today, many notices give only a few weeks. That change matters because enterprises cannot replace building safety connectivity overnight.
Fire and elevator systems often involve regulated equipment, inspection scheduling, approval from an Authority Having Jurisdiction (AHJ), and coordination with landlords and specialty vendors. Short notice often forces organizations into a reactive sprint. Costs rise. Risks multiply. Operations experience disruption.
The biggest takeaway is simple. A carrier notice does not serve as an early warning. It signals the final countdown.
What this suggests about remaining copper sites
Short notice periods indicate a more repeatable and industrialized retirement process. Copper shutdown programs have matured. They no longer treat copper sites as exceptions. Carriers now expect fast execution.
This also suggests that carriers now focus on the most difficult pockets of remaining copper. Many enterprises still depend on analog lines because they were installed when POTS service felt permanent. Carriers no longer want to preserve copper capability for edge cases.
Even if a location has not yet received notice, the direction is clear. The pace increases every year.
Why ILECs want faster copper retirement
Several strong incentives align in the same direction.
Copper is costly to maintain
Copper plant requires high maintenance and often fails due to water intrusion, corrosion, cable faults, and aging terminals. Meanwhile, revenue from copper-based services continues to decline. The business case no longer works.
Capital moves to fiber and IP networks
Carriers want to invest in modern access networks that scale. Retiring copper frees resources for fiber and IP services that customers now expect.
Legacy skills are disappearing
Fewer technicians support copper plant and replacement parts are harder to source. Complexity and risk increase when expertise declines.
Reliability concerns and risk management
Copper networks fail more often in storms, pole damage, and incidents of copper theft. Fewer customers rely on it, so carriers gain more value from modern platforms that restore faster and maintain higher uptime.
Real estate optimization
Large switching centers now have oversized power and cooling loads. Copper retirement allows consolidation and cost reduction.
The common blind spot: building safety systems
Most organizations focus on IT systems. Yet building safety and operations often rely on analog signaling or copper lines that facilities teams or landlords installed years ago. These lines may appear incorrectly in billing data or sit inside third-party service contracts.
Common examples include:
- Fire alarm panels with dialers or legacy communicators
- Burglar alarms and monitoring lines
- Elevator emergency phones
- Emergency call boxes and blue-light systems
- Gate and entry systems
- Environmental monitoring devices and analog modems
When any of these systems lose connectivity, the impacts include safety exposure, failed inspections, tenant disruption, and emergency work.
What multi-site enterprises should do now
Enterprises that operate many locations need a structured program that prevents a site-by-site scramble.
Build a complete copper dependency inventory
Start with an audit of copper-dependent services across all locations. Review carrier bills, vendor records, and work orders. Always verify on-site because billing data often has gaps.
Classify each dependency by criticality
For every line or service record:
- Identify which device uses it
- Determine if it supports life-safety or code compliance
- Confirm ownership of equipment or lines
- Note signaling type and monitoring needs
- Document downtime risk
This creates a strong basis for prioritization.
Engage stakeholders early
These upgrades almost always involve facilities, IT, security integrators, elevator service providers, fire contractors, monitoring stations, landlords, and sometimes AHJs. Early planning avoids delays with inspections or vendor scheduling that can exceed short carrier timelines.
Design modernization paths that protect safety
Replacing copper does not mean simply moving to VoIP. Life-safety systems need redundancy and supervision.
Proven approaches include:
- Fire panels using dual-path communications (IP plus cellular)
- Burglar alarms with upgraded communicators and verified monitoring
- Elevator emergency communication designed for code requirements
- Emergency systems with proper location services and uptime
Engineer resiliency from the start
Copper lines delivered power by default. IP and cellular require planning for:
- Battery backup
- Signal strength testing in basements and shafts
- Network segmentation for priority signaling
- Acceptance testing and documented cutovers
- Continuous supervision of connectivity
Roll out in waves with a repeatable playbook
Pilot first. Set standards. Then execute in phases. Treat the work as a national program rather than a series of emergencies.
Benefits of acting early
Organizations that start now gain four major advantages.
- Control over schedule and vendors: They avoid emergency cutovers and poor pricing.
- Lower safety and compliance risk: Thorough testing and documentation reduce outages.
- Lower cost: Planned upgrades cost less than urgent work.
- Better reliability: Dual-path solutions detect issues faster and support proactive maintenance.
Final thought: Do not wait for the notice
The timeline from notice to retirement keeps shrinking. Copper shutdowns will continue as part of carrier strategy. Critical building systems often remain invisible until they fail. That creates unnecessary safety and compliance risk.
The best approach is clear. Treat copper retirement as a national readiness initiative. Inventory. Prioritize. Modernize. Standardize. Act before the clock starts ticking.
If your organization operates multiple sites and needs a structured plan to identify copper dependencies and modernize building safety connectivity, MarketSpark can help. You can start now, before a 40-day notice put your operations in crisis.