What will you do when BT turns off the ISDN network?

What will happen when BT switches off the ISDN network?

BT has announced that by 2025 they intend to turn off their phone ISDN network. This means that all customers need to have migrated from ISDN lines by then.

BT plan to migrate all 3.2 million of their customers onto their IP based solution by then, either Cloud Voice or One Phone.

This is a great opportunity for businesses to have a look around and see what alternatives there are to BT and really consider a hosted VoIP solution.

Benefits of hosted VoIP

Telephony costs are much lower

Your phone number isn’t tied geographically so if you move offices your phones move with you, no down time and no costs.

It is scalable simply add more users as you need them.

VoIP factors in proper disaster recovery as opposed to ISDN which can only be forwarded to a single number.

You must check on your internet speed though, voice needs a solid internet connection but it doesn’t need to be fast. An upload speed of just 1 MB will handle 10 HD concurrent calls.

Upstream hosted VoIP provides corporate switchboard facilities as standard through an easy-to-use web portal. Businesses range from a 2000 user single site, through multiple site organisations down to small offices. Cost wise it is priced on a user per month basis and call charges are a fraction of regular phone lines.

10 years might sound like a long time to move over but I blinked and realised I was 40 – could have sworn I was 30!

The move away from ISDN

If you currently use ISDN lines through BT or one of their resellers they will soon be contacting you about moving away from ISDN. The plan is to switch off the ISDN lines by 2025 and have all of their customers on an IP solution, either on-premise or hosted.

This is a good opportunity to look at your options.

Until now with analogue lines, 3 main carriers have had the market tied up and regardless who was supplying you, be it Talk talk, UW etc, they were only re-selling one of those 3, such as BT.

VoIP is changing that. VoIP suppliers are not obligated to resell BT’s products and can develop their own.