NuTech – How will the PSTN and ISDN switch off impact your customers?

As we all know, early 2015 BT announced their intention to switch off the PSTN and ISDN networks by 2025. Customers will be migrated to a single IP core network using Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), this will ultimately replace all legacy networks and platforms.

It was estimated in early 2016 that there were  3.2 million ISDN channels in the UK, many of which were owned by BT. BT also stated that in 2020 businesses will no longer be able to buy any systems that use these networks. Although 2025 may seem a long way off, 2020 is only three years away so if you’re providing SIP solutions to your customers you should, as a high priority, be looking at how your existing customers can be migrated over to SIP.

There are several benefits of a SIP/VoIP solution including:

Cost savings – no line rental, cheaper calls including international calls, and free calls between your organisation’s offices.

Mobility – remote workers can login to your VoIP from anywhere using an Internet connection, even on their mobiles.

Multi-functional – as well as voice calls, VoIP can also be used for video-conferencing using a VoIP phone.

Integration – because VoIP technology uses the internet it is possible to integrate it with your other business systems, such as email clients or customer records.

Scalability – VoIP technology scales easily to your business. New phone lines can simply be added, reassigned or removed depending on your business’ needs.

You’ll also need to ensure that your office Internet can handle VoIP. You will need a baseline of 5Mbps down and 2Mbps up as the bare minimum for a small office of about five to seven users on VoIP.

Additionally, now that ISDN is essentially viewed as a legacy platform, investment in it is likely to fall. This could mean that the standard of the existing network, and support infrastructure, could begin to suffer the effects of being retired well before the 2025 switch off date, so now is the time to have conversations with your customers about SIP.

We have recently signed Ingate Systems, a Swedish company that manufactures SIP based technology including Session Border Controllers enabling secure and effective connection to ITSP’s and their networks.

For further insight read this white paper which runs through the benefits of SIP Trunking and Best practices regarding SIP or for a more personalised conversation about your business and your client’s needs call Nuvola Distribution on 01628 906010.