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In 2015, BT announced that they will be switching off the Public Switch Telephone Network (PSTN) and Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) in 2025, marking the biggest change in the telecoms industry for over 30 years, but what does this mean for businesses?

The move brings to an end the use of analogue phone lines and moves communications technology into an entirely online space.  Businesses will no longer have the ability to acquire ISDN and PSTN after September 2023, with the total switch off occurring in 2025.

Many businesses already use the more modern Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) services, some may have started using them during the Coronavirus pandemic, for example Microsoft Teams.

The change will offer many benefits to customers such as clearer, cheaper, phone calls.  Aside from being a more modern technology, VOIP has many advantages for businesses:

• It’s much quicker to provision new lines.
• Businesses can reduce their line rental because they will need fewer physical lines.
• It is incredibly scalable and flexible – e.g. a cloud-based telephone system can give users the ability to easily transfer calls between offices and locations, to use a work line whilst anywhere in the country and to see which members of a team are available to take calls.

Although this transition should be straightforward for most customers, some may require additional support to update their services.

Traditionally, most landline telephone services have been delivered over PSTN, an old technology that was introduced during the 1800s and allows for information to be transmitted through a network of copper telephone wires and equipment using analogue signalling.  Over the last 10 years however, telecom companies have built modern internet protocol (IP) networks which can support both broadband and landline telephone services.  Internet based call services are becoming more common as the PSTN is reaching its end of life and becoming increasingly expensive and difficult to maintain.

Through our partnerships with Gamma and Microsoft, David Allen IT Solutions specialise in helping businesses transition from their legacy ISDN systems to a cloud-hosted phone system.  Everything from number porting to hardware setup is managed by our onboarding team whose job is to make the move as smooth as possible.

Contact us for more information and to discuss your business telephony needs.