That means we now only have 4 years to plan how businesses prepare for December 2025.
The BT Switch Off… The short answer is they are old outdated systems that take too much time and money to run, the convergence of all services, voice, data, video to IP protocol means the maintenance of only one network so to summarise BT will be transferring their analogue and digital networks to IP.
So why is BT withdrawing the PSTN and ISDN networks?
For those reading this thinking there’s loads of time, it’s been 6 years since the announcements and look how that has flown and for those thinking I won’t be affected, here’s a summary of all the services that WILL be affected.
- Ships in Docks
- CCTV
- Alarm Lines
- PDQ’s EPOS and ATM’s
- Lift Lines
- Emergency Lines
- Non-Served Premises (riverbanks)
- Door Entry Systems
- Faxes – Yes some business still use FAX
- Telemetry – flood defence and roadside energy
- Telecare
The good news is that there are replacement products and experts to help audit and analyse how best to migrate to replacement services.
It’s not all bad news when the BT Switch Off occurs. There are several alternative access products that will support the migration and in true industry style we bring you more acronyms.
- SOTAP – Single Order Transitional Access Product
- SOGEA – Single Order Generic Ethernet Access
- SOGfast – Single Order Gfast
- GEA-FTTC – Fibre to the Cabinet
- GEA-FTTP – Fibre to the Premises
- Ethernet
- Muti Network Simcards
- PhoneLine +
So what does the next 4 years look like?
The BT Switch Off means that BT Openreach will stop selling WLR products that are reliant on PSTN from September 2023 and will completely close the platform in December 2025.
For business customer the process of migration should be gradual, well planned and managed by your communications partner who are best placed to advise of the best replacement product and guide you and your business through the journey.
