Frost & Sullivan Names Ooma AirDial the 2026 Competitive Solution Leader for POTS Replacement in North America

Key Terms

fcc regulatory

The FCC is the U.S. government agency that regulates radio, television, satellite, cable and wireless communications. Its decisions are like traffic signals for companies that use airwaves or communications networks: they grant licenses, approve or block mergers, set technical rules and enforce penalties, all of which can change a company’s ability to operate, sell products or compete — and therefore affect revenue, costs and investor returns.

ip telephony technical

IP telephony lets voice and video calls travel over the same internet networks used for email and web browsing, replacing traditional circuit-based phone lines; think of it as switching from postal mail to email for conversations. It matters to investors because it can cut communication costs, enable faster rollout of new services, and tie a company’s value to network reliability, cybersecurity and software partners, all of which influence revenue, margins and risk.

ucaas technical

Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) is a cloud-based bundle of business communication tools — such as phone calling, video meetings, messaging, and voicemail — delivered over the internet instead of on-site hardware. For investors, UCaaS matters because it shifts companies from buying and maintaining equipment to paying recurring subscription fees, creating predictable revenue for providers and signaling how widely businesses are adopting flexible, remote-ready communications, which can affect growth and valuation.

multiplath technology technical

Multiplath technology is a set of techniques for dealing with the way a wireless or wired signal can split and arrive at a receiver along multiple routes, creating overlapping copies that can blur or cancel each other. Like listening for a single voice in a room full of echoes, the technology either reduces the interference or uses the extra copies to improve reliability and speed. Investors care because better multipath handling boosts product performance, user experience, network capacity and can influence competitive differentiation and adoption in communications and connected devices.

Recognition comes as accelerating copper network retirement drives urgency around replacing mission-critical analog lines

SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- May 19, 2026 - Ooma, Inc. (NYSE: OOMA), a provider of advanced communications services for businesses and consumers, today announced that the market research firm Frost & Sullivan has selected Ooma AirDial® as the 2026 Competitive Strategy Leader for Best Practices in the North American POTS Replacement Industry for the second consecutive year.

A free copy of the report is available at www.ooma.com/airdial.

Analog copper-wire phone lines, also known as Plain Old Telephone Service or POTS, are being phased out by legacy carriers, creating a challenge for mission-critical devices such as fire alarm panels, elevator emergency phones, building entry systems and burglar alarms that rely on POTS connections. In March 2025, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) shortened the notice periods from 180 to 90 days, accelerating pressure on organizations to migrate away from analog lines while carriers continue sharply raising prices for remaining service.

“Ooma AirDial offers a powerful and practical path for organizations transitioning away from POTS lines. Built specifically to eliminate the limitations of analog connectivity, the solution is easy to implement and manage, and cost-effective at scale. AirDial delivers the security, compliance, and functional robustness required to support critical devices,” states Elka Popova, vice president of connected work research at Frost & Sullivan and author of the Best Practices report.

“Reflecting growing awareness, 50% of organizations surveyed by Frost & Sullivan in 2025 plan to increase investment in next-generation solutions to replace specialty POTS and analog lines by 2028,” the report states, adding that “many existing offerings address only narrow use cases or limited device types.”

Frost & Sullivan commended Ooma for its long-term growth strategy and its ability to lead in a rapidly evolving market, including Ooma’s integrated model combining hardware, connectivity, voice, and centralized cloud management in a single solution. Additionally, they praised Ooma’s recently launched POTSTracker.com which provides visibility into FCC filings and line discontinuance risk.

“Ooma’s AirDial’s strategy is aligned with an accelerating market inflection point at which enterprises face mounting pressure to replace POTS‑dependent lines amid rapid copper network retirement. AirDial is a purpose-built replacement solution for mission-critical use cases such as fire alarms, elevators, emergency phones, fax, and point-of-sale (POS) systems. This approach enables Ooma to address a segment underserved by traditional IP telephony and UCaaS solutions—without compromising security, privacy, and compliance,” the Frost & Sullivan report says.

“AirDial’s value proposition rests on the way it combines reliability, simplicity, and compliance into a unified service. A key differentiator is Ooma’s MultiPath Technology, which enables simultaneous use of wireless LTE and wired Ethernet connectivity where appropriate to reduce the likelihood of service disruption. This active-active approach goes beyond basic failover models and is particularly relevant for applications where service continuity is nonnegotiable,” the report continues.

Organizations across industries including healthcare, education, retail, property management, and hospitality are accelerating plans to modernize aging analog infrastructure as copper network retirement continues nationwide.

“Frost & Sullivan’s recognition underscores what enterprises are already experiencing: legacy POTS infrastructure is reaching the end of the road,” states Thad White, vice president of product management at Ooma. “Built as part of Ooma’s broader communications platform, AirDial was purpose-built to help organizations modernize critical connectivity with a more reliable, scalable, and future-ready solution designed for life-safety and mission-critical communications.”

Organizations seeking to modernize legacy POTS infrastructure can learn more about Ooma AirDial and download the Frost & Sullivan report at www.ooma.com/airdial.

About Ooma, Inc.

Ooma (NYSE: OOMA) delivers phone, messaging, video and advanced communications services that are easy to implement and provide great value. Founded in 2003, the company offers Ooma Office for small to medium-sized businesses seeking enterprise-grade features designed for their needs; Ooma AirDial for any business looking to replace aging and increasingly expensive copper phone lines; Ooma 2600Hz for businesses that provide their own communications solutions built on an outsourced underlying platform; and Ooma Telo for residential consumers who value a landline experience at a more affordable price point. Ooma’s award-winning solutions power more than 1.2 million users today. Learn more at www.ooma.com in the United States or www.ooma.ca in Canada.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260519213644/en/

MEDIA CONTACT:
Jim Gustke, Ooma
press@ooma.com

INVESTOR CONTACT:
Matt Robison, Ooma
ir@ooma.com
(650) 300-1480

Source: Ooma, Inc.