UK PSTN Switch-Off – The Why, the What, and the When
Remember the old days of dialling up a broadband connection?
How about your old 1G, 2G, or 3G mobile phone signal? Making a voice call was hit-and-miss enough back then, never mind getting online.
Today, of course, we take super-fast, super-reliable network connection for granted. 5G will soon become 6G: rock-solid, virtually instantaneous mobile connectivity in the palm of our hands.
It’s technology upon which our lives now pretty much depend - as critical to us all as the other essential utilities like water, gas, and electricity.
However, we cannot communicate via mobile phone alone. Businesses in particular still rely on traditional telephony. Emergency alarms and helplines in sheltered housing schemes, public buildings, and lifts, for example, cannot work without it. And millions of homes have (and still want) a landline.
Trouble is, the billions of miles of copper cable carrying those analogue signals (either buried in the ground or above us on telegraph poles) are no longer fit for purpose. Modern demands and expectations need to be met with modern, high-performing, cost-effective, and future-proof responses – and that is why the UK’s Public Switch Telephone Network (PSTN) will shortly be turned off in favour of a next generation, cloud-powered replacement.
In simple terms, that means telephony over the internet – every landline connected to a giant and powerful virtual network that outperforms what we currently have in every single department.
The date for this epic switch-over is currently January 31 2027. So far, the public information messaging has been somewhat wanting but, in general terms, BT’s domestic customers will all receive simple plug-ins that will connect their existing phones to their existing broadband.
For businesses, though, it’s an opportunity to make bolder strides on their digital transformation journey. It’s a journey that not only navigates the hard-stop nature of the big switch-off, but also has the potential to unlock the game-changing benefits of a cloud-powered future.
Faster, slicker, more reliable communication. Limitless scalability. Lower costs.
Take a doctor’s surgery, or a busy commercial call centre. The days of organisations such as those only being able to handle, say, 30 calls at a time will be gone forever. Instead, thanks to clever digital integration software, AI-powered call handling tools will automatically route callers to the right agent, or intuitively provide automated responses to frequently asked questions. Thanks to Natural Language Understanding smarts, those automated voice interactions will even feel almost human.
For many businesses – particularly the end user customers of Evolve IP’s channel of partners – that digital functionality has already transformed the way they communicate and collaborate with customers and colleagues alike. Those businesses have effectively already made the switch from the old to the new – a full two and a half years ahead of the deadline – and are reaping huge productivity, efficiency, and profitability rewards as a result
If your customers are eyeing the switch-off nervously – not yet understanding or prepared for change – our experts are on hand to help.
If you are a technology service provider that has not yet fully-engaged with your customer base on what the switch-off means, or are looking for a vendor partner capable of delivering huge switch-off gains for you and all concerned, we should talk.
So, reach out.
Heck, why not even give us an actual call..!
