Concept

Plain old telephone service

Summary
Plain old telephone service (POTS), or plain ordinary telephone system, is a retronym for voice-grade telephone service employing analog signal transmission over copper loops. POTS was the standard service offering from telephone companies from 1876 until 1988 in the United States 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. The term reflects the technology that has been available since the introduction of the public telephone system in the late 19th century, in a form mostly unchanged despite the introduction of Touch-Tone dialing, electronic telephone exchanges and fiber-optic communication into the public switched telephone network (PSTN). POTS is characterized by several aspects: Bi-directional (full duplex) communications. Using balanced signaling of voltage analogs of sound pressure waves on a two-wire copper loop Restricted to a narrow frequency range of 300–3,300 Hz, called the voiceband, which is much less than the human hearing range of 20–20,000 Hz Call-progress tones, such as dial tone and ringing tone Pulse dialing and dual-tone multi-frequency signaling (DTMF) BORSCHT functions: battery feed (B), over-voltage protection (O), ringing (R), signaling (S), coding (C), hybrid (H), and test (T) Loop start, ground start and E&M signalling The pair of wires from the central office switch to a subscriber's home is called a subscriber loop. It carries a direct current (DC) voltage at a nominal voltage of −48V when the receiver is on-hook, supplied by a power conversion system in the central office. This power conversion system is backed up with a bank of batteries, resulting in continuation of service during interruption of power to the customer supplied by their electrical utility. The maximum resistance of the loop is 1,700 ohms, which translates into a maximum loop length of using standard 24-gauge wire.
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