Our service provider (Verizon) notified us that they are discontinuing service to our location through their current technology (soft switch.) Their claim is that we have 2 options, the first is that we could upgrade to fiber optic lines but those lines won't work with our PBX system (Merlin Magix) so we would be forced to install a VOIP system within the next 2 weeks before they shut off the soft switch. The other option is to go to POTS lines which they claim will cause us to not be able to transfer calls.

We currently have 35 phones and each has their own internal extension. We have 8 phone lines coming into the system. 6 of the external lines are only set to ring on 4 phones. The other 2 lines ring on 3 phones. All of the other phones have to have a call forwarded to them from one of the phones that receives external calls if they want calls from the outside. There is no way to call someone directly at their extension from an external phone. However, all phones can call outside. After explaining all of this to Verizon, they claim that there is no way that we only have 8 phone lines while having 35 active extensions. They claim that we either have a trunk line or an ISDN. However, we do not have that as far as I can tell. In the very least, we are not paying for a trunk or ISDN service.

From my limited understanding, my belief is that we essentially have local extensions that have nothing to do with Verizon since they cannot be reached externally. My assumption is that the Merlin Magix is doing to the transferring and it is only transferring the calls on the local extension and not doing anything with the connection to Verizon. If that is the case, we should still be able to transfer our calls internally even if we switch our lines to POTS lines. Is that correct?