By Sue Michaelwaite
The UK is undergoing a change – and we’re not talking about the weather. The existing Public Switch Telephone Network (PSTN) and Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) will be fully turned off in December 2025. And, on January 1, 2026, all calls will be routed over the internet instead.
While that deadline may feel like a long time away, as of September 2023, a UK-wide ‘stop sell’ is in place. This prohibits the sale of any new telephone services that rely on the old copper wire network. So, switching to a new system is now your only option.
The PSTN is being switched off because it’s out of date and out of sync with modern demands. So, why would you delay making the switch until 2025 when you can start reaping the benefits of cloud-based calling now?
The benefits of switching to cloud-based VoIP
The technology that is replacing the PSTN and ISDN networks is known as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). This is essentially a cloud-based calling solution, and as the name suggests, it involves sending your ‘voice’ over ‘the internet’.
PSTN can no longer continue to offer a reliable service. Full fibre is much less likely to cause faults and is more resistant to rain and flooding, this will mean future full fibre networks coupled with All-IP services will be much more resilient.
If your organisation must switch anyway, there’s no time like the present. Getting ahead of the competition and moving to VoIP lets you:
- Create a unified communications system with software integrations. By using VoIP, you can create a fully unified communications system within your organisation. There’s no need to have different systems for different functions. Instead, you can use a single-provider solution that acts as one platform for the whole of your business. On top of this, 8x8 offers integrations with other important systems, like Salesforce or HubSpot.
- Adapt to flexible working. VoIP lets organisations route calls to any location or device as long as there’s an internet connection. This means employees can stay connected wherever they are. For example, if you have a hybrid workforce that is split between home and office, rotating locations regularly, VoIP lets your employees take their phone lines with them. When they’re in the office, the call can be routed to a VoIP desk phone, and when they’re at home it can be routed to their laptop. What’s more, if you have employees who work on-site or at client sites, their calls can be routed to their mobile phones via their mobile data.
- Make international calls hassle- and cost-free. Because VoIP operates over the internet, you don’t need to pay additional charges to make international calls. This can help you save a lot of money if your organisation has offices internationally, for example, or sells to clients globally.
- Enhance your customer experience (CX) with advanced CX features. VoIP systems like 8x8's rely on the cloud, which means they come with capabilities much greater than PSTN . For example, you can record calls and save them in the cloud. These recordings can be used for training and quality management purposes, and AI-enabled analysis can help to extract important customer sentiment data. In addition to this, features such as intelligent self-service assistants can help to filter customers and collect their personal information. Ring groups and call queues can also allow customers to be placed on hold or quickly diverted to an employee in a different time zone to increase response times.
Around nine in ten UK businesses are still operating on PSTN or ISDN lines. The early birds get the worms, and early adopters benefit from new technologies before their competition does. The sooner your organisation switches, the sooner it will benefit.
I think this should say phone systems and more flexibility for hybrid working environments.
