National telecoms provider BT has announced they will shut off their ISDN and PSTN services. The move brings to an end the use of analogue phone lines and moves communications technology into an entirely online space. BT will no longer offer businesses the ability to acquire ISDN and PSTN after 2020, with the total switch off occurring in 2025.

Over 2 million UK businesses will be affected by the switch off. Primarily, these will be small companies. The biggest impact will be felt by those with heavy use of fax machines or landline telephones. Businesses will need to look for alternative methods of data transmission to maintain communication coverage.

BT is pushing customers towards its VoIP solutions, enabling them to keep their old technology that currently operates over ISDN and PSTN.

Currently your existing phone system transmits data down a hard line to your copper-wire landline. Data is then transmitted via ISDN or PSTN through this wire. With the wire no longer operational following the BT 2025 switch off, the data must go elsewhere.

The data will have to be transmitted over the internet using your broadband and happily your existing equipment should be able to be configured to carry this out.

PC Matters can come and assess your existing phone system and provide advice and installation of devices that will allow your existing equipment to function after the switch off. If you have a strong internet connection, you could even convert and stop paying for your landlines.

Cloud telephony opens up a whole new way of working that you may wish to move over to now before the BT 2025 switch off. Internet telephony can give you and your employees a greater degree of freedom when working.

Handset: You can use an ordinary looking handset that has been pre-configured for you and simply plug it in to a network point, the phone will make a connection to the cloud based switch and then your connection is live and ready to make and receive calls.

Mobile Phones: You can download an app to your mobile phone, configure it to hit the cloud based switch and then that device is ready to also make and receive calls through the phones data connection as if he were at the office.

PC and Laptop:Software can be installed and when run, logged in to the switch, this will again make the phone lie ready to make and receive call through using a headset to make them more private.

The cloud based switch will handle all the call router and can be programmed to offer the same features as a traditional phone system, only it is available anywhere you have a device with an internet connection.