Carriers are raising prices on analog lines and retiring them region by region. This is what staying on copper actually costs versus moving to a 3CX phone system — without the sales pitch.
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Copper lines cost more every year, can only do what they did in 1995, and the carrier can stop selling them to you. 3CX costs less per month for most offices with more than two or three lines, adds the features staff actually ask for (mobile apps, voicemail to email, ring groups), and you keep every number. The catch is a one-time migration that has to be planned properly, and voice now rides on your internet connection, so that connection has to be solid.
| Keep copper lines + old PBX | Move to 3CX | |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly cost | Per-line charges that keep rising; $40–$80 per line is now common, plus PBX maintenance contracts. | Flat 3CX license (free up to 10 users) plus a SIP trunk billed per channel or per minute. Usually one bill instead of several. |
| When something breaks | Parts for Avaya, Mitel, NEC, Toshiba, and Nortel systems are scarce; a failed card can mean days without phones. | Hosted or on standard hardware; a failed desk phone is swapped, a failed PC just logs in from the app. |
| Working from anywhere | The number rings the desk. Call forwarding to a cell is per-line and clunky. | Desk phone, desktop app, and mobile app all ring on the same extension. Staff answer the business line from home without giving out personal numbers. |
| Call handling | Basic hunt groups and voicemail, if the PBX supports them. | Ring groups, queues, auto-attendant menus, after-hours routing, voicemail to email, call recording. |
| Your phone numbers | Stay as they are. | Stay as they are — ported to the new carrier. Fax numbers too. |
| Internet dependency | None. Lines work in a power or internet outage (if the PBX has battery backup). | Needs a stable connection. Calls fail over to mobile apps on cellular if the office internet drops. |
| Carrier retirement risk | Real. The FCC no longer requires carriers to keep offering analog service; non-renewal notices are already going out. | None. SIP service is the direction the industry is going. |
| Up-front work | None, until something fails. | Assessment, build, number porting (2–4 weeks), cutover day. Agapetec handles the paperwork. |
It is not always wrong to stay. If you have one or two lines, no plans to grow, a PBX that still works, and a location with unreliable internet, the migration cost may not pay back quickly. Alarm panels, elevator phones, and some fax machines also still need an analog path — those can stay on copper or move to an analog gateway while everything else goes to 3CX.
We inventory your lines and call flows, build 3CX next to your existing system, port the numbers, and cut over on a scheduled day with the old system still powered on. Nobody misses a call. Here is the step-by-step. 3CX works with any SIP trunk provider in your country, so this applies whether your business is in Dallas or anywhere else.
Will we be without phones during the switch? No. The new system runs in parallel and calls forward during the number-port window.
Do we have to buy new desk phones? Often not. Many existing SIP phones can be re-provisioned for 3CX. We tell you which ones during the assessment.
What happens to our fax and alarm lines? They can stay on copper or move to an analog gateway connected to 3CX. We map each one in the assessment.
Is our internet good enough? Voice needs a stable connection more than a fast one. We check bandwidth and router settings as part of the assessment and tell you if anything needs to change.
How much does 3CX cost? 3CX licensing is free for up to 10 users; paid plans are flat-rate, not per user. See the current plans on our pricing page.