In the world of business telecoms, there’s been a lot of talk of ‘the end of ISDN’ and ‘moving to the cloud’ – but are you confident you know what this means, or why UK companies are increasingly making the switch to web-based solutions?
Most organisations still use ISDN and PSTN circuits to communicate by telephone. But, just over two years ago, BT Wholesale announced that, by next year, customers will no longer be able to use these.
The expectation is that, by 2025, such circuits will be turned off completely, meaning customers will shift from standard landlines to web-based systems.
What could this mean for your business?
So VoIP or voice-over internet protocol systems are set to replace traditional PSTN and ISDN solutions. You have the choice of making the switch by going for a hosted (or cloud-based) model or decide to upgrade your current system so it can be hooked up to your broadband connection.
A hosted system means that all your calls are delivered over the web, and there won’t be any need for any of the usual telephony hardware, apart from handsets. Likewise, you won’t require specialised telecoms engineers or dedicated telephone lines.
On the other hand, if you decide to keep a business phone system on site, you will be able to reap all the benefits of VoIP, including scalability, cost efficiencies and HD quality.
(However, you will also need to create a phone line over your internet connection, using SIP Trunks.)
Before you decide, here’s a list of things to check:
