PSTN & ISDN Lines To Be Shut Off

How Does This Affect Your Business?
In case you missed it in 2015 Openreach announced that they will be switching off the PSTN and ISDN networks by the year 2025. From this customers are going to be migrated to a single IP core network that will eventually retire and replace all legacy networks and platforms.


​PSTN and ISDN what exactly are they and what is the difference?
ISDN or Integrated Services Digital Network pushes both voice and date through digital lines, this allows you to video conference, transfer data and have direct dials ins. Another advantage of having ISDN lines is that they provide multiple channels per line, which would allow you to make simultaneous phone calls on one line.
PSTN, Public Switched Telephone Network or sometimes also known as (POTS) Plain Old Telephone Service are different to ISDN's as they only transfer analogue voice data through their lines. This is generally owned and operated by your phone network.


So what is the alternative and future?
Scrapping the ISDN and PSTN, which are the expensive bits of your telephone bill as they come under line rental, gives you one clear solution VoIP. VoIP which stands for Voice over IP works by transmitting your voice data over a internet connection. VoIP has been around for a long time and many businesses have been successfully using it for many years, this has already led to the steady decline in take up of ISDN and PSTN lines. VoIP is popular as it is a very cost effective way of managing telephony within a business.

If your business relies on one of the 3.2 million ISDN lines in the UK, here is what you need to know about the switch off of the ISDN and PSTN lines.


Planning ahead
If you currently have a traditional telephone system, there is no need to panic immediately. Just take a look at your telephone contract and look when it is ending, most likely this will sooner rather than later. We have highlighted below what we believe are the key benefits of VoIP -

• Scalability - VoIP gives you the potential to grow or decrease when ever needed. With new phone lines easily added within minutes and phones reassigned and moved in seconds.
• Integration -  As VoIP works over the internet, this makes it easier to integrate it with email clients, browsers and customer records.
• Multi Functional - VoIP doesn't just have to be used for voice calls it can also be used for video conferencing via a VoIP phone or computer/tablet.
• Mobility - With VoIP remote workers can take their VoIP phone or use their mobile and appear as they are calling from within the office. This can be done worldwide as well.
• Money Savings - VoIP has no line rental, call charges are a lot cheaper and this includes calls to international numbers. It also allows free calls between organisations and offices.
  
  

There has been a lot of scare mongering about VoIP especially about its consistency and security, we hope to put all your worries to bed with this article.

447 Services provide free telecoms audits of your business, providing you with free impartial advice on your telecoms, we'd also be happy to answer any questions you have on VoIP and also give you a demonstration as well.


What to do next?
We would recommend that your business moves to VoIP in the near future, ISDN is now just seen as a legacy platform which means investment and maintenance will slow in the coming years. This could result in current infrastructure and the standard of current networks suffering ending in poor telephone service.
In four years time in 2020 five years before the shut off of ISDN and PSTN lines, businesses will not be able to buy systems that support these networks, with this in mind this is we are recommending to switch to VoIP rather than upgrade current systems.

When 2025 rolls in OpenReach plan to have all customers migrated to an IP network making VoIP the perfect solution for your business now.