JCPenney is a U.S. retailer that describes itself as the shopping destination for diverse, working American families. It offers fashion, apparel, home, beauty, and jewelry from national and private brands, along with personal services including salon, portrait, and optical. The company and its 50,000 associates worldwide serve customers through jcp.com and more than 650 stores in the U.S. and Puerto Rico. The company has been in business for more than 120 years.

Like many U.S. organizations, JCPenney faced the retirement of traditional copper POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) lines. Carriers have spent years phasing out the technology, and costs have risen, sometimes to as much as $1,400 per month for a single line. At the same time, carriers are reducing service on copper infrastructure and discontinuing products as they retire their copper networks.

JCPenney wanted to move off the POTS network, but it had a large number of specialty lines, such as alarm and elevator circuits, that were designed for traditional telephony and are generally incompatible with next-generation VoIP systems. The retailer also wanted a new digital communications infrastructure that could help modernize its stores.

The scale added to the difficulty. JCPenney had 5,000 lines spread across 660 stores in all 50 U.S. states, which made the digital transformation of its voice network a substantial undertaking.

After weighing its options and running pilot tests, JCPenney selected MetTel's POTS Transformation, a fully managed service that connects analog systems to cloud-based data and voice services. The service makes VoIP conversion possible for legacy equipment, so alarm, elevator, and other specialty lines could move to digital voice without replacing the systems behind them.

The MetTel solution connects to the internet over broadband, Wi-Fi, or a 4G LTE SIM. Wireless backup keeps lines working during network outages, and dual SIMs add failover protection for emergency line assurance. MetTel provides access to all three major cellular carriers and prequalifies LTE/5G coverage in each store's area, so cellular can serve as the primary connection where Wi-Fi or broadband is unavailable, or as a backup if the primary circuit fails.

The rollout converted more than 5,000 telephone and alarm lines at all 660 JCPenney stores across all 50 states. JCPenney now manages its voice network through the MetTel Portal powered by Bruin, which gives it full transparency into the network, and it works with a single provider for its voice needs.

• More than 5,000 telephone and alarm lines converted at all 660 stores across all 50 U.S. states
• No existing store systems needed replacing, avoiding infrastructure costs
• Projected savings of millions of dollars annually in recurring telecommunications costs
• More resilient external links for critical systems such as alarm and elevator lines
• Full network transparency through the MetTel Portal powered by Bruin, with one provider for all voice needs