What do you give up when you swap a landline for a cloud phone system?
Summary
Mostly, you give up independence from your building's power. A copper line gets its power from the phone company, so a basic corded phone could keep working in a blackout, while a cloud phone needs your internet connection and your electricity. In return, the numbers and call rules move to the provider, so remote staff and other offices share one system and changes happen in an admin portal instead of on a wall of equipment.
Power is the real trade
The FCC warns that VoIP "may not work during a power outage or when the internet connection fails or becomes overloaded," and suggests a backup power supply, a traditional phone line or a wireless phone as a fallback. The 2015 FCC order on backup power was aimed at exactly this gap: it covered fixed voice services "which are not line powered."
There is a partial upside. Because your number and routing rules live with the provider, incoming calls still reach the provider when your office connection is down. If calls fail over to cell phones, people can keep answering through a power cut.
911 stops being automatic
A landline's 911 location was wherever the line was installed. A cloud phone can travel, so the provider has to get a registered location before service starts, offer a way to update it at will, and tell every subscriber in plain language that 911 may be limited by relocation, a broadband failure or loss of power. The provider must also keep a record that each subscriber acknowledged this. For a company with remote staff, that means registering each person's working address, not just the office.
Everything else gets easier
- Adding a person means adding an account, and their smartphone becomes a business phone.
- Remote workers and branch offices sit on the same system and the same numbers.
- Routing changes, such as after-hours rules or who rings first, are made by an admin in a web portal.
Copper is on its way out anyway
The FCC stated in a 2026 order that it has "no authority to prohibit copper retirements." Whether and when your copper line goes away is the carrier's call, so a business that stays on a landline is waiting on someone else's schedule.
Sources
- fcc.gov/consumers/guides/voip-and-911-service
- ecfr.gov/current/title-47/chapter-I/subchapter-A/part-9/subpart-D/section-9.11
- federalregister.gov/documents/2015/10/16/2015-24845/ensuring-continuity-of-911-communications
- federalregister.gov/documents/2026/04/20/2026-07622/reducing-barriers-to-network-improvements-and-service-changes
Related on this site
- What happens behind the scenes when someone calls a cloud phone number?
- Should you own your phone system's PBX or let a cloud provider run it?
- How much internet speed do VoIP calls actually need?
- Will 911 know where you are if you call from a VoIP phone?
- Can you keep your business phone number when you switch providers?
Written by Kaz (pen name). Figures are copied from providers' published pricing pages on the dates shown. We have not used these products. Corrections: contact form.