Three top tips in planning for the 2025 Digital Switchover
The UK’s old PSTN analogue and ISDN digital phone network is being switched off in 2025 and from that point forward, all phone systems will have to use the internet to make calls (Cloud Telephony).
While telephone systems may seem to work in the same way as they used to, the technology used will be very different; in this blog, we’re going to help you plan in advance of the switchover, and what your plan should look like.
For more than 100 years, analogue phone lines have been carrying telephone calls using copper wires; ISDN digital phone lines were first introduced in 1985 and for the most part, these too use copper wires These two services are both being retired in 2025 and are being replaced using internet telephony over fibre networks. Providers have many different names to cover what is essentially ‘Cloud Telephony’ such as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), SiP, Hosted Cloud, and Digital Voice but these all refer to what is Cloud Telephony.
Also and not to be forgotten, are that certain types of broadband must be changed too. Within the 2025 switchover are copper based broadband circuits called ADSL and FTTC (fibre to the cabinet). These are being retired in favour of SoGEA and FTTP (fibre to the premises). If you are a current user of ADSL or FTTC then you need to make sure that you plan to upgrade these connections too.
Here are three top tips for planning for the 2025 switchover
For many, the first part of the process is to find out if your current telephony is already in ‘the cloud’ or is it reliant on analogue or ISDN technology; in addition, is your broadband either ADSL or FTTC? If the answer to either or both of these is yes, then you need to speak with someone who can best advise you on how to migrate to Cloud Telephony and the correct broadband replacement.
The second thing that needs to be done is to check your current contacts and to make sure you are not committed to old technology beyond the 2025 switchover.
Finally, you need to speak with an expert who can look at what you have now, where your business is going and what technology you’ll need to support your plans.
Have a think in advance about how your business is working and what may change in the next few years – points to consider are:
Where will your office be
Will you have any satellite offices
Will you and your colleagues be working from the office, from home or remotely
Making the change ahead of the switchover will save you time and money in the long run, so why not read one of our previous blogs on this very subject? You might even find that the savings pay for themselves in a matter of months not years!
From saving you money on expensive equipment and time on setups to allowing you to integrate communications across multiple platforms and streamline your services, making effective use of Cloud-based Telephony services would be a perfect plan for 2025.
Overall, making a plan for 2025, regardless of the size or current systems within your business, will be a great help in the long run; setting yourself up well with these new systems ahead of the crowd will set you apart from your competition and stop any part of your service getting lost in the switch over.
To talk to our experts about the kind of solutions which will work best for you, click here and let’s get started!
8th January 2024
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