What Does Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS) Mean?

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.

Techopedia Explains Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS)

Plain old telephone service is a voice grade telephone service. It continues to be the basic form of home and small business service connection to telephone networks around the globe. POTS includes bidirectional or full duplex voice band paths with frequencies limited to 300 to 3400 hertz (cycles per second). POTS also includes call progress tones such as dial tones and ringing signals, subscriber dialing, operator services such as directory assistance and long distance calling, and a standards compliant analog telephone interface.