"Making communications work for you"
BT PSTN switch off
Overview - You may have heard something about this. Some of our clients have been asking us having been contacted by people pretending to be calling from BT and persistently trying to force an appointment to discuss the changes. So here we address what's actually happening, things to consider and the timeline.
Lines affected – Analogue (standard home and business phone lines) and digital (ISDN2E and ISDN30E) phone lines.
What’s happening – BT will be switching off the above type of phone lines in 2025 so anyone using them will need to have made arrangements to transfer their numbers using those lines to the newer services generally known as SIP, VOIP or Hosted services.
Timetable – BT has earmarked September 2023 to stop the sale of new analogue and ISDN phone lines and December 2025 for the withdrawal of all analogue and digital PSTN phone services. Whilst there is no immediate urgency we recommend doing something sooner rather than later both to avoid a last-minute rush and to take advantage of the savings available now.
New line/system options – If you currently have a phone system in your office/premises this can usually have SIP phone lines added to it. Either by adding the appropriate licences and hardware or, using an external converter. From a calls point of view functionally it would work in the same way as your current setup with one number shared across all lines and/or a range of numbers including the main number and direct dial numbers shared across all lines. These newer SIP lines are less expensive than current phone lines and include call bundles so you will reduce ongoing line rental and call costs.
Hosted system – The other option is to move to a Hosted system. This replaces an on-premises phone system but again works in the same way as far as main, direct dial numbers and other functionality is concerned. Both SIP lines and the hosted options also have a lot of additional optional enhanced productivity functionality available which is much easier to deploy than with traditional phone systems.
Summary – We will be contacting all our clients in due course with a detailed cost comparison based on their current setup. If you have any questions in the meantime please get in touch info@adeptcom.net
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