In just over 5 years, UK telephony will change forever. BT Openreach will officially retire the old copper lines that have been the foundation of the UK’s telephony system for decades, and replace them with fibre-optic based internet telephony. Both PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) and ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) run over the copper network, so upon switch off, these services will cease.

PSTN is the system that has been used by most residential telephone lines, ISDN is generally used to connect lines to a business telephone system, allowing you to provide departments or individuals with a direct dial number. If your business has a security or lift alarm linked to a phone line, that will likely be using PSTN too.

So, what happens next?

While actual switch off in December 2025 sounds a long way off, you should be aware of the ‘stop sell’ transition which is planned to be operational across the UK by September 2023. After that date, nobody will be able to buy or add new features like CLI, call barring and 1471 to a PSTN or ISDN-based telephone system.

We are encouraging all of our customers to think about their future communications requirements. Due to the pandemic, many have already done this, and they are now reaping the benefits of an early transition to IP, providing efficient and flexible collaborative working solutions for their remote workforce.

What are the benefits of switch-off?

Migrating to an all-IP communications package may seem like an unnerving process, but once you have decided what you need, it’s actually very straightforward; you may be pleasantly surprised!

With as close to an always-on solution as you can get, and with outages subject to SLAs, our business customers are reporting substantial benefits such as:

  • Business Grade Connectivity
  • Faster response times to issues through Business SLAs.
  • Improved Collaboration through Microsoft Teams
  • Enhanced Disaster Recovery
  • Superior Business Continuity options
  • An impressive range of call features like video calling, screen sharing and recording

Even better, all of our customers say that using IP telephony has brought them significant cost savings.

Can we help you?

V12 Telecom is a privately-owned telecommunications company that works with clients and partners to provide voice, data and mobile services on a global basis. Based in Cirencester, Gloucestershire, we offer a range of high quality and secure telecoms solutions throughout the UK and abroad, in a wide range of sectors including Energy, Technology, Retail and Telecoms. We are proud of our reputation for providing straightforward, open and helpful guidance and robust state-of-the-art solutions to companies of all sizes.

If you would like to find out more about how you can benefit from The Great British Switch Off, or arrange an assessment and audit of your existing communications systems, please do get in touch, in confidence