Ooma AirDial’s MultiPath technology—the failsafe secret sauce for emergency POTS line replacement

Stemming the rising costs of analog phone lines for life-safety and building protection systems such as fire-alarm panels, elevator phones and security systems is a prime motivator to find new ways to keep these vital communications lines open. But even more important is choosing a POTS-line replacement that can reliably summon help when needed.

Ooma AirDial® does both—it dramatically cuts your phone service bills and provides dependable service with a built-in backup plan. That backup is provided by AirDial’s MultiPath technology, which is what sets Ooma AirDial apart from other Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS) line replacement solutions currently on the market. Before getting into how MultiPath technology works its magic, it helps to understand why a POTS-line replacement like AirDial is needed now more than ever.

You’ve probably heard that big telecom providers are phasing out the traditional POTS copper-wire analog lines to focus their attention on cellular and VoIP phone technology. There are many reasons behind this “copper sunsetting” of the traditional POTS analog lines, but the bottom line is that they’ve become very expensive and service isn’t as reliable as it once was. This is a huge problem for legacy safety devices that depend on those lines.

What is Ooma AirDial?

Ooma AirDial is a POTS line replacement solution. Running on a secure and reliable network, AirDial imitates a standard POTS analog line, but it’s really a digital internet connection. Switching to digital technology comes with many benefits for customers—most notably lower service costs, expanded features and reliable service.

What makes AirDial service more reliable than other POTS replacement solutions?

The big differentiator is Ooma’s MultiPath technology, which is best explained with an analogy.

Say you have an 18-wheel truck with two tires on each side of each axle to evenly distribute the weight of your cargo. If you’re driving on the highway and a tire blows out on the tractor, you may not even notice because its twin tire keeps the truck rolling forward. And you almost certainly won’t spin out.

MultiPath technology is similar because it creates two simultaneous connections from AirDial to the Public Switched Telephone Network. One connection is from AirDial’s wireless LTE network, and the other is from the customer’s existing broadband network. MultiPath continuously monitors both connections and judges which is the best link. If one connection fails, the other is automatically and instantly used. This means calls in progress will continue traveling along uninterrupted. Having two different paths is especially helpful during network outages. Remember last February when tens of thousands of AT&T customers lost cellular service for hours?

While other POTS replacement solutions typically offer a backup feature, it is generally less elegant, more time-consuming and may not be as safe as MultiPath. That’s because other solutions usually designate one link as the primary connection and another link as secondary. The secondary connection only jumps into action when the primary connection fails. So if the primary connection goes down during a call, that call will drop and must be reconnected. This can take a full minute or more, which isn’t ideal any time, but especially during emergency calls from an elevator, a fire alarm panel or a campus blue-light call box.

Learn more about AirDial

Another highlight of AirDial is that it’s easy to use and includes Remote Device Management—an online portal where you can view detailed information about the equipment plugged into each AirDial device.

Read a blog post from a resident manager of a condo community about his experience using AirDial to escape the POTS treadmill.

Learn more about how Ooma AirDial offers an affordable way to cut your ties to POTS lines.