It is now less than 3 years until the technology that powers landline telephones will be stopped completely. You will already be aware of the fact that the process for this is well under way and will be finished in 2025.
However, it is important to note that there is no reason to worry as you won’t be cut off without any form of telephone communications.
As it stands, PSTN (The Public Switched Telephone Network) is used to keep traditional landlines working through the use of copper cables. However, Openreach has already started to remove copper cables with more modern equivalents that allow an internet-based telephone connection to be established.
The shift towards cloud-based phone systems has been on the cards for a while with the government keen to get this moving quickly as the use of traditional landlines has dropped dramatically. Fibre-optic cables are replacing copper cables.
It is important to note that the telecom providers are keen to point out that there are a whole host of benefits of moving to internet-based phone systems with the biggest ones being that they are much cheaper to maintain, and the overall call quality is vastly improved when compared to your more traditional setup.
So, how will my business be impacted by traditional landlines being axed?
To break this down for you, we’ve put together 5 of the biggest impacts on your business:
- This will impact you in the greatest way if you are a business that is still using landline telephones or fax machines.
- These businesses will need to put a plan in place to move their phone systems to the Cloud as soon as they can to avoid any unnecessary disruption to their business. Cloud-based phone systems are much cheaper, simpler to implement & have a whole host of advanced capabilities.
- We strongly suggest that if you are using fax machines, you should look to remove these from your business as soon as possible rather than taking the time to maintain them after the switch. By doing this, your business will be able to utilise modern technology better to communicate in a much more efficient way as well as increasing productivity across your business.
- It is important to note that it might not just be your telephones that are impacted by this change as things like alarm systems and payment terminals could suffer malfunctions.
- The best thing to do is to get in touch with an IT support partner such as ourselves who will point you in the right direction when it comes to implementing cloud-based phone systems.
How do traditional phone lines compare to cloud phone systems?
To help you to convince key decision makers in your business that moving your phone systems to the Cloud is the right choice, we’ve put together a table which compares the two forms of communication:
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Cloud Phone Systems
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Traditional Landlines
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Cost of setup
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Low as you don’t need to implement any hardware or servers
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High as you need to install and maintain expensive hardware as well as servers
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Ongoing costs
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Low calling costs for using this system on a day-to-day basis in your business
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High call costs as well as further charges for other lines and features
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Remote working
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Easily make and receive calls from any location that has internet access
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Not mobile with it being largely restricted to on premise office usage.
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Scalability
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Simple & cost-effective for your business to upscale quickly
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Additional phones and wired lines are needed to scale up
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Additional features
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Game changing features such as call forwarding, recording
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Limited additional features with additional costs needed.
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So, what does my business need to do now?
If your business is still using a traditional landline system, we strongly suggest that you consider making the move to a cloud phone system sooner rather than later. As well as helping to ensure that your business can continue to trade in 2025, you will also save money, have access to advanced features and a much more effective phone solution.
In order to learn how to make the move to a cloud phone system, then please get in touch with your IT support partner.
If you are not a client of Advantage’s and would like to find out more about our dedicated IT support, expert IT consultancy & cyber security prowess as well as how to move your phone system to the Cloud then please do give our team of experts a call.
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