How does the POTS (Plain Old Telephone System) work?

Plain Old Telephone Service. Chart 1. Plain Old Telephone Service. Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS) refers to the basic voice service traditionally transmitted over the copper wire network. read more

The telephone today is essentially the same thing as what existed in 1900 and is often referred to as POTS (or Plain Old Telephone System). While the public knows it as POTS, the telecom engineers prefer to call it PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network). read more

Plain old telephone service (POTS) is an analog telephone service implemented over copper twisted pair wires and based on the Bell Telephone system. This system connects homes and businesses to neighborhood central offices. A central office is ultimately connected to other offices and a long distance facility. read more

POTS was the standard service offering from telephone companies from 1876 until 1988 when the Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) Basic Rate Interface (BRI) was introduced, followed by cellular telephone systems, and voice over IP (VoIP). POTS remains the basic form of residential and small business service connection to the telephone network in many parts of the world. read more