Analogue Switch-Off or Digital Switch-On?

Myth busting and making the switch ahead of the digital ‘switch-on’

The UK is preparing for a huge technological change. Next year, the historic analogue network, used to make phone calls from our business landlines, and also used to carry broadband, will have reached the end of its life. (www.openreach.com)

The new digital network will supersede, providing a future proof, more reliable and dependable broadband service that will support the UK for decades to come, and landlines are “going digital.”

Whether you’re a glass half full, or glass half empty kind of business, let’s go under the microscope of the “Analogue Switch-Off,” or as we here Global Connect prefer to call it, the “Digital Switch-on” by discussing and dispelling some common myths surrounding the situation…

• "They can’t possibly turn off the network if people are still on it..."

Put simply, they can, and they are!

This process begun in 2020. As of September 2023, the telco industry have completely stopped providing new analogue phone services altogether, in preparation for this transition.

The global VoIP market will reach $194.5 billion dollars by end-2024 (www.gov.uk), so it’s very much here to stay!

An analogy that Global Connect’s Adam Glover has coined; think back to when TV went from analogue to digital, if you didn’t own a FreeView box or Sky (or similar), you quite literally didn’t have any TV channels. It’s exactly the same premise.

• "We’ll just wait until nearer the time to make the change..."

It’s your business and you’re well within your right to hold off. What we would say, as industry experts, is don’t wait too long…

The general consensus within the telco industry suggests now is very much the time to act. We’re already seeing the effects, and we’re predicted to see huge influxes of upgrades simultaneously, which will cause bottlenecks. Engineers can always be slowed down, they can never be sped up! Migrating to VoIP earlier rather than later can allow time to iron out any kinks in set-ups, call flows and changes, not to mention "train" any staff on how to use the new system. And with new technologies to learn, analogue services simply aren’t being taught or trained to staff at network level, which could result in any analogue faults taking longer to resolve.

In our professional opinion, act now to ensure a smooth transition, and avoid interruption of your business-critical communications.?

• "Our business number will change..."

In almost every case, and for 100% of our customers, your numbers all stay the same.

Whether that be main business numbers, marketing numbers, extensions and direct dials, all numbers can be ported into the cloud which allows seamless transition and business continuity.

• "VoIP calls are unreliable..."

VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol), or in layman’s terms “where calls go over the internet” is highly reliable. Ever made a call over WhatsApp, FaceTime, MS Teams, Skype, or even Facebook? Then you’re already using it! It’s the internet connection itself that cause VoIP calls issues occasionally!

With the mass-rollout of full fibre, the affordability of lease lines ever-decreasing, business grade FTTC (SoGEA) and some techy stuff we can do in the background to segregate bandwidth and prioritise voice, we can provide guaranteed speeds to ensure fantastic call clarity, minimal lag and zero latency.?

• ?"We can’t get good enough internet speeds at the office or site..."

There’s quite literally dozens of possible solutions. Whilst business individuals may be correct in terms of a particular service they've explored, we’ve never been faced with a business who’ve checked every possible solution.

With Global Connect’s consultative, carrier agnostic approach, we explore all possible angles to implement proven, reliable connectivity for our clients."

• ?"VoIP and Hosted solutions are too expensive..."

Whilst VoIP solutions are definitely invoiced differently to your traditional phone lines, in the vast majority of cases it works out more cost effective!

Billed traditionally, the generic office set up for a small to mid-sized business would require physical phone line (ISDN2/ISDN30/multilines), you’d pay for all calls (or have a call package bolt-on), you’d pay for various individual features (such as caller ID, various diverts, voicemail etc.), and the maintenance or support contract of the on-site phone system has gradually increased in cost year upon year as parts become end-of-life and refurbished-only options.

Here at Global Connect, you simply pay for a “licence” for each member of staff. Unlimited free calls, plentiful features, and with 98% of any issue being fixed remotely, costly maintenance contracts ad replacement parts are a thing of the past!

• ?"There’s no benefit for us migrating to hosted telephony..."

Significant cost savings, easy to implement, extremely flexible and scalable, keeping up with your competitors, empowers businesses to make agile changes, (take a breath) complete disaster recovery, futureproofed, increased productivity, full transparency, (another breath) increased reliability and resilience, fully bespoke to each business’ needs.

We could go on, but those are the go-to benefits that spring to mind…

In summary, we completely understand that change isn’t always welcomed. In an attempt to sound empathetic, the switch-off quite is happening, and if not already, every business simply needs to make the required changes.

Here at Global Connect, we use our industry-leading knowledge, and consultative approach to guide you through the entire process, from inception to completion. Drop us a message, reach out on [email protected] or call 03305772553 to become digitally ‘switched-on…

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