Get Grooven At A Glance
- VoIP phone systems send calls over a community’s internet connection instead of copper telephone lines, which lowers monthly costs and adds features like voicemail-to-email and call routing.
- Senior living communities are moving to VoIP now because a March 2026 FCC order made it easier for carriers to retire copper lines, though carriers must still notify customers before discontinuing service.
- Bundling phone service with TV and internet, such as through Groove’s Triple Win Bundle, can lower a senior living community’s total technology costs.
- Managed Wi-Fi with enough bandwidth and network priority keeps VoIP calls clear, since call quality depends entirely on the strength of the underlying network.
- VoIP systems can support E911 location routing and staff alert integrations, which matters for compliance and resident safety in a senior living community.
The Push To Retire Copper Phone Lines in Senior Living
Copper telephone lines are being phased out faster than many senior living operators expect. The FCC’s March 2026 Network and Services Modernization Order made it easier for carriers to retire aging copper infrastructure. According to Broadband Breakfast, carriers must still notify customers before discontinuing service, though the FCC order eases that process.
For senior living communities still running phones over copper, a sudden notice that service is ending creates a real operational problem. Front desks, nurse call integrations, and emergency lines all depend on a working phone system. Unfortunately, scrambling to replace phone service at the last minute leaves little room to do it well.
VoIP phone systems solve this by routing calls over the internet instead of copper wiring. This post covers everything your senior and assisted living community needs to know now in order to prep ahead of upgrading to VoIP. We’ll talk about what VoIP is, how it compares with traditional phone lines, and how to lower costs by bundling phone service with TV and internet.
What Is a VoIP Phone System, in Plain English
A VoIP phone system, short for Voice over Internet Protocol, sends phone calls over an internet connection instead of copper telephone lines. Rather than routing a call through the traditional phone network, VoIP converts a caller’s voice into small packets of data. Those packets travel over the community’s internet connection, similar to how a video call works.
Staff and residents still use a phone or a headset the same way they always have. The difference happens behind the scenes, where calls travel over data lines instead of dedicated copper wiring.
How VoIP Phone Systems Outperform Traditional Landlines
Traditional senior living phone systems rely on physical copper lines, which require ongoing maintenance, per-line fees, and hardware that is increasingly hard for carriers to support. VoIP phone systems run on a community’s existing internet connection instead, which means fewer physical lines to maintain and fewer surprise repair costs.
VoIP also adds features most copper systems cannot support. Voicemail delivered to email, call routing between departments, and forwarding a call to a staff member’s mobile phone during a shift change are common examples.
Because copper retirement is already underway, moving to VoIP ahead of a disconnection notice gives a community time to test call quality and train staff, rather than scrambling to replace phones once a deadline arrives.
Why Bundled Technology Packages Save Senior Living Communities Money
According to Forbes Advisor, a VoIP phone plan will commonly run 15 to 30 dollars a month per user and is generally cheaper to maintain than a landline. However, prices can add up fast for senior living residents and the management running the property when utilities get added separately. Bundled technology packages are one of the more straightforward ways a senior living community can lower its total technology costs. Instead of paying separate vendors for phone, television, and internet service, a bundled package consolidates everything into one monthly fee and one point of contact.
For instance, Groove’s Triple Win Bundle for senior living combines phone, DIRECTV, and managed internet into a single package built for communities. This bundled pricing can save residents as much as 75 percent compared to purchasing each service separately. For a community already planning a VoIP migration, adding phone service to an existing TV and internet bundle is often simpler than negotiating a standalone phone contract.
Why Managed Wi-Fi Determines VoIP Call Quality
VoIP call quality is only as good as the network carrying it. Managed Wi-Fi for senior living communities prioritizes bandwidth for voice traffic. This keeps a call from breaking up when residents are streaming video or staff are updating records on the same network.
A community still running on shared or unmanaged Wi-Fi may notice choppy calls, delayed audio, or dropped connections during busy hours. Managed Wi-Fi for senior living is built around always-on connectivity and dedicated network capacity – the same infrastructure that supports telehealth visits and safety monitoring throughout a community.
In addition, a strong network connection supports emergency efforts in senior living environments. Enhanced 911, or E911, is an upgraded version of the 911 call system in the US that automatically identifies the location of the caller and sends the call to the nearest emergency assistance center. Because E911 location routing and staff alert systems increasingly run over the same network as VoIP calls, network reliability directly supports the emergency response systems residents and staff depend on.
More on VoIP Phone Systems in Senior Living
A traditional landline carries calls over dedicated copper wiring through the public phone network, while a VoIP phone system sends the same calls as data over the community’s internet connection, and both handle everyday calling the same way from a resident’s or staff member’s perspective even though the underlying technology works differently. VoIP typically costs less per line and supports features landlines cannot offer, such as voicemail-to-email and call routing.
A senior living community’s actual monthly cost depends on the number of lines needed, the features included, and whether phone service is bundled with internet and television service. Bundling phone with other technology services often lowers the per-line cost further, since the community pays one combined technology fee instead of separate vendor bills.
When a carrier retires copper lines, communities still relying on copper for phone service receive a disconnection notice and must switch to another technology, sometimes with only a short window to prepare before the old lines stop working entirely, along with any alarms or elevator phones still wired to them. Moving to VoIP ahead of that notice helps a community avoid a last-minute scramble to keep phones and connected systems working.
Yes, most VoIP providers support a process called number porting, which transfers a community’s existing phone numbers to the new system without interrupting incoming or outgoing calls, so residents, families, and staff keep dialing and receiving calls at the numbers they already know. There is generally little to no disruption in service during the transition itself.
Getting Ahead of the Copper Line Deadline
Copper phone lines are being retired faster than most senior living communities expect, and waiting for a disconnection notice leaves little time to plan. VoIP phone systems give communities a way to get ahead of that timeline while lowering costs, adding features traditional lines cannot support, and keeping emergency systems reliable.
Bundling phone service with TV and internet, and building it all on top of managed Wi-Fi, gives a community one less vendor to manage during a technology transition. Groove works with senior living communities on exactly this kind of transition, from phone systems and managed Wi-Fi to bundled packages like the Triple Win Bundle.
If your community is thinking about what comes next for its phone system, Groove’s team is happy to talk through the options whenever the time is right for you.
