The withdrawal of BT’s PSTN and  ISDN services is fast approaching,

Addressing this may be on your to-do-list but have been putting off. However there are real benefits in transitioning now, that will not only protect your business but also improve customer experience, help you to better communicate with new prospects, attract the skilled personnel you need to remain competitive regardless of geography and improve security and resilience. 

BT Openreach plan to switch off ISDN and PSTN services in 2025, at which point all phones lines in the UK will be digital, routing calls and other services like video over IP (Internet Protocol).

it is therefore increasingly important that you have a plan in place to transition any ISDN dependent telephone systems within your business’ estate to SIP trunks. Alternatively look at migrating to a hosted telephony / UCaaS (Unified Communications as a Service) solution.

It is also important that businesses are aware of what other systems they may have in place such as alarms, EPOS machines, door entry systems, CCTV, and faxes, that depend on ISDN or analogue lines and look to move them over to IP.

Why are PSTN and ISDN services being switched off?

The transition away from ISDN is tied in to the BT’s strategy to move away from legacy infrastructure to IP based networks and services. 

We have all seen the rapid adoption and benefits of video, voice, meetings, chat and collaboration based applications like MS Teams, Zoom, 8×8 and others. Legacy ISDN and analogue services are not suitable for supporting the applications we have all become used to and the demands placed on networks are only going to increase.

The IP Based technologies and underlying infrastructure being rolled out nationally and internationally are designed to support both current and future demands and will replace the old copper wires that make up the PSTN (public switched telephone network). 

 Should we look at transitioning now?

In short, absolutely. Whether you want a simple cost effective telephone system solution that you can use from anywhere, or you would like to adopt video, voice, chat and collaboration tools, IP based services such as SIP trunks, hosted telephony and unified communications  deliver a richer user and customer experience, better management information along with greater security and business continuity. 

How we help. 

There are many factors to consider when transitioning from legacy technology. While ensuring that your systems are compatible with the transition from PSTN and ISDN services to IP, we also ensure that any retained or new systems employed support your business objectives and remain compliant. 

We first engage with you to understand where your company has come from any challenges faced and what you want to achieve moving forwards. We can then work with you to align systems and services that will help your business drive forwards, maintain a competitive advantage, increase customer retention and deliver on your strategy.

We help to bring clarity and focus in the decision making process..