Guest feature: is your business fit to switch?

Comms Business’s Alex Wright takes a look at what businesses need to be aware of as society heads towards an all-IP digital future

First the good news: Britain is heading full speed towards a world-class digitally interconnected future where all telecommunications and data transactions take place over reliable high speed fibre optics.

Now the bad news: your existing call-handling, automated key-holder alerts, fire alarms and remote back-office support services will probably stop working as a result.

That’s because the UK’s existing analogue legacy phone network will be switched off by 31 January 2027 and replaced with a fully digital network that uses Internet protocol (IP) technology across a fibre-based service.

That means every phone line in the country will become digital, routing calls over IP rather than the traditional Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) and the Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN). Therefore, any remaining services that aren’t switched to the new network will be lost.

The digital switch-off will affect everyone and everything, from streamlined call routing and intelligent call recording to integrating with other key systems.

It’s not just phone services that will be impacted either. Everything that currently uses the old phone network will be affected, including non-voice services connected to PSTN or ISDN lines such as lift emergency lines, alarms, door entry systems, payment machines, building management systems, CCTV and car park barriers.