Grant Thain is an experienced Connectivity and Voice specialist. He’s undertaken a number of roles at Chess, and is now Vendor Alliance Manager. He supports Chess customers, vendors and people with his in-depth experience and knowledge of the solutions that are both available now, and under development.
Grant Thain, Voice and Connectivity Vendor Alliance Manager at Chess, discusses the upcoming PSTN Switch Off, with the latest updates and what it could mean for your business. He covers:
- What is the PSTN Switch Off? >
- Why it should be a priority >
- The latest information on the Switch Off >
Watch this session from Future Insight Technology 2023 where Steve Blackshaw, All IP Director at BT, covers the upcoming PSTN Switch Off and the next steps your business should take.
The upcoming PSTN Switch Off is happening sooner than you might expect. It’s important for businesses to get ahead and make the necessary changes to avoid disruption.
What is the PSTN Switch Off?
In 2025, the Public Switch Telephone Network (PSTN), is being switch off by BT Openreach. It’s not just your phone services that are affected. It’s everything else that currently uses the old phone network, all your non-voice services connected to PSTN or ISDN lines. Whilst most businesses are going to be affected by the change in broadband services, things like alarms, EPOS machines, door entry systems, CCTV, and even faxes are affected too.
The Switch Off means that businesses using these services will need to move to different solutions to avoid any disruption.
That’s two years away, why should I worry now?
Although the final stages of the switch off are happening in 2025, your business and your existing services may be affected earlier. It’s crucial to have a plan in place especially if you have multiple locations or are greatly reliant on your phone or broadband lines. Switching to future-proof connectivity and a cloud voice phone system should be a priority for your business.
Time marches on….
It is fair to say there has been an amount of scepticism about the timetable for the switch off of the PSTN. Was it realistic that something as large and complicated as this could be shut down by 2025. No one ever hits the deadline, do they? Well September 5th saw the first real milestone being met with the National Stop Sell of products delivered over the PSTN.
As of September, you can no longer order new telephone lines, ISDN2/30s or ADSL/FTTC Broadband. Further to that, there is no longer an ability to move services between suppliers, so basically you have what you’ve got.
Stop Sell, What Now?
If we presume that the final stage of the PSTN switch off also goes to schedule, there are just over 24 months left to make your decisions and migrate your existing services across to 2025 compliant services. This is one of those things that it is best to review early and avoid the rush that will no doubt happen as we get closer to the December 2025 deadline.
What do I do?
Depending on how complex your existing reliance on PSTN based services, it could be a challenging task to identify what you have, what you use it for and what you need to meet your future business requirements.
Don’t see this as just a painful task being forced upon you. Lots of businesses have a legacy base of services, which has grown organically over previous years. Coming up with a plan around how to make your services 2025 compliant offers a great opportunity to consolidate and come out of this exercise with a base that truly fits your needs.
The first step is to speak to a Chess 2025 expert. We’ll help identify what the impact of the 2025 PSTN Switch Off is on your business and everything you need to consider. Our experts can help remove the stress from your migration plan and help you transition away from these at risk services before they disrupt your business.
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