Over recent months we have had more and more enquiries from new and existing customers about the upcoming changes to the UK networks, stating they have had “several calls from other companies telling them that they need to make changes now and upgrade systems before they go obsolete”.
This has highlighted the need for a simple yet straight-talking update to help you with the facts around these upcoming changes and how this affects your business. We will also explain how we are planning to help you navigate these changes at the right time for you, and at the lowest possible cost.
Sadly, many service providers in our industry are “jumping on the bandwagon” of using the confusion around these changes, to promote fear and uncertainty; whilst at the same time, pushing to close new business, exaggerating the position, and pressing an urgency for change to fit their agenda as opposed to yours.
It is true to state that change will be needed before the affected services are withdrawn, however, there are no plans to do this until sometime in 2025
We would recommend that you should take into consideration what will need to change by 2024 at the latest, and there is no harm at all in understanding the changes coming. The advice we would give is to only make changes now if it makes sense for your business, which we are more than happy to help you decide.
So what is changing in the big switch-off?
To put it simply, telephone lines with a telephone number which aren’t already VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) and running over the internet will no longer be supported by the UK networks from the year 2025 onwards. This means if you use any of these lines you will need to consider a change as below:
Telephone call lines…
If you have ISDN lines at present, you should have a plan to migrate to VoIP for your phone calls (in our view) before the middle of 2024 at the latest. We have many products available today to do this. Many of our customers are already using VoIP – in which case, you shouldn’t need to be making any changes.
Fax lines…
Many companies have already simply stopped using fax and cancelled these lines in place of email. if you need to continue to use fax, we suggest that you consider looking at an online service or ‘fax-to-email’ service, which we can recommend.
Alarm lines…
f you have an on-site alarm system using a phone line to dial out, this will need to change. You will be able to speak with your alarm system provider and opt for switching to use a wi-fi or hard-wired internet connection or a GSM mobile SIM card type solution instead of a telephone line. We can provide SIM cards if needed for this use at half the cost of a traditional phone line, so for finance reasons, this may be something you want to consider ASAP.
Credit card machines…
If you are still using a credit card machine that connects to a physical telephone line, we would recommend considering a unit that uses Wi-Fi or a GSM-type connection by speaking with your payment processing provider.
Broadband lines…
Most current broadband connections are provided on the back of a physical phone line. All broadband connections can be migrated to the newer versions of broadband, which remove the phone number from the underlying line and include it in the broadband rental price as part of the new broadband service. These are known as SoGEA and SoTAP instead of FTTC and ADSL2+.
If you currently take your broadband through Tech IP, we will contact you at the appropriate time to make the required changes. If you do use the phone line for phone calls as well as Internet, we can help you switch that to VoIP at the same time. Alternatively, we may encourage you to consider a newer fibre-to-the-premises type of broadband, known as FTTP, if that becomes available to your location. This removes the copper cables altogether and operates faster with improved reliability.
Lift lines…
If your property has a lift, you will likely have a telephone line connected to the lift for health and safety reasons. In this scenario, we would recommend considering a lift control unit that uses Wi-Fi or a GSM-type connection through speaking with your lift service provider.
Need more information?
Spare a couple of minutes to what our video on the 2025 which off…
Why not read through our page on getting prepared for the ISDN switch-off. Or if you have any questions at all relating to these upcoming changes, please don’t hesitate to contact us directly for expert advice. You can email us at customerservices@tech-ip.co.uk or call us on 0345 389 2310 and select option 3.
