Humans & Communications... ...Digital Evolution

300 000 years on the planet & now life must become digital in a matter of months in the planned UK BT Openreach Analogue BIG Switch Off !!?

So - What's all the fuss about - in this countdown to Digital Britain?

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The pace of our human life and our lifestyle expectations, these days, let’s face IT, accelerate daily – would you agree?

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Perhaps we have reached a stage where human life actually depends upon technology?

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Alarming, if you ever get chance to stop and think about IT for a minute!

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From the buzz at the side of your bed in the morning, the mobile apps you rely on (as you glance at your phone the moment you’re awake to learn what’s happening in the world), through the clever tech in your vehicles as you travel, the traffic lights that frustrate your journey, the internet, computers, printers and phones in your home & office, right through to entering the security code, to protect your family and home, as you retire for the evening (ready to do it all again tomorrow), these things are simply integrated into our lives, perhaps simply taken for granted!

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We’ve not even mentioned the IT & communications which hospitals, schools, colleges, universities, business, industry, commerce, government, military and media rely on every second of each day.

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?Isn’t it crazy how much we trust and rely on technology for life?

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It’s fascinating to remember us humans have been on our beautiful planet for around 300,000 years – and here we are – still only in year 2024! Amazing that we’ve lived without technology for most of our existence, with the telephone first being invented, just a relative few years ago, by Alexander Graham Bell in the US in 1876 and the first Stored Program Control computer invented in Manchester in 1948. Whilst humans relaxed for hundreds of thousands of years and recorded lots of history over the last 2000, in less than 150 years, we’ve transformed our planet dramatically and here we are - right now, 2024 - 2026, all needing to transform digitally – within a matter of months!

We can only imagine where this change momentum will see us in just a few years’ time!

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Some areas have progressed more than others, with larger physical things often taking longer to update – for example, some of the cabling we presently use for even today's phone calls, under the roads across the UK, was installed back in the 1880s to run our very first telecommunications systems. No wonder your calls cut off sometimes!

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Comparatively, our demands on connectivity, communication and technology – with rapid developments in software and human expectations, are massively exceeding the capacity of the old fashioned, General Post Office Telecommunications’ cabled networks. (where I completed my telecoms engineering apprenticeship all those years ago).

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Back to the traffic lights – every day you’re likely to be stuck in traffic, delayed - looking at humans in holes, installing new optical fibre cable networks, which can cope with multi-million times more capacity than the obsolete copper cables being replaced.

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Until relatively recently, telephones spoke “phone language” – wibbly wobbly curved analogue signals, down the old-fashioned copper cables and computers spoke “computer language” – black and white noughts and ones, binary digital language, nowadays known as IP. Everyone back then enjoyed life through the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) and we all used a combination of both a traditional telephone line, plus a separate, relatively modern internet connection (which ironically worked down the old fashioned telephone line)!

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Over the last few years, you’ll probably have been inundated by folks talking “VoIP”, trying to sell you “new stuff”!? (I’ll write further “technology made simple” translations on this soon.) Essentially, this is where telephone handsets, business telephone systems and public networks across the world, have been converted to speak IP “computer language”, converting to VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol). Here, our natural, human analogue wibbly wobbly speech is converted into digital signals, which can be transmitted in perfect HD speech quality, across the internet – nowadays being referred to as “Digital Voice”.

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Back tracking to 1986 in the UK, the word DIGITAL first emerged in telecommunications, with the mini-industrial revolution of ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network), where the majority of UK businesses upgraded services to this old kind of Digital, using the old copper cabled networks for communications. Whilst that worked fine for a while, these days, even public telephone exchanges and telephone systems, upgraded at the time, just cannot cope. The huge demands of IP communications, video calls and streaming, cloud-based systems and connectivity, plus our general human expectations of lifestyle technology, have all contributed to the “fuss” mentioned above and exactly what the great BIG Analogue Switch OFF is all about.

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So, THE BIG PLAN, by the UK’s major telecoms network providers – BT, Talk Talk, Virgin Media etc., has been to switch off both PSTN and ISDN in December 2025. (NOW, however, largely due to the number of connected “life essential” devices remaining, which will not work on the new networks, the final Switch Off has been postponed until Jan 27). Full STOP. The END.

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Thereafter, the plan from December 2025, has been for Britain to live Digital, where human existence in the UK, including 5.6 million businesses and 29.9 million homes will be absolutely reliant on internet/cloud connectivity via either fixed connected fibres, old copper cables temporarily converted to cope with IP (SoGEA – Single order Generic Ethernet Access), mobile 4G/5G networks and satellite communications.

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Whilst many have been panicking and others planning for a number of years now, since this great big changeover was announced a few years ago, I’ve been recommending careful consideration is given to this by everyone. I’ve advised hundreds of business owners not to fall into the trap of unnecessary knee jerk upgrading, spending too much or too soon. We’ve all had so many phone calls, emails, adverts, etc telling us we’ll be doomed tomorrow if we don’t change and go digital, today!

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Perhaps, more importantly, I have been pointing out to home users that they need to beware that personal telecare safety alarms may not function on the new digital networks, as well as pointing out unless they have backup power supplies, anything relying on their internet connection, like walk around phones, will fail if the electricity goes off!

Critically, the public needs to be aware that the new type connections, via broadband, absolutely must have mains electricity power to function, to protect life, for phones to ring, for internet access, for fire, intruder alarms and business phone systems to work. It's just not like the good old days!

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Business phone system upgrades should be relatively simple, BUT - there are a handful of things you need to know about, which require more time to plan and consider. For example, if you have Personal Health Telecare Alarms, intruder alarms, building access systems, CCTV, fire alarms, card payment terminals, lifts in your buildings or fax machines – these tend to work only on the old analogue lines, which are to be switched off - so it is essential to check and upgrade these to alternative, digital compatible, equipment & connections, for your peace of mind, as soon as you get chance.

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Certainly, now things have settled down and as we head towards digital Britain, this is the right time to move on. There’s still time to make careful, intelligent upgrade decisions, ready for the BIG Switch Off. Ideally, customers will be able switch on their new systems for less than they are still paying for their old ones.

You don't need to worry about your phone numbers – everyone can keep their present cherished business and home phone numbers and just convert them to IP, sometimes called internet or cloud lines.

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Overall, it’s simple – you still have time, just be sure to check and switch as soon as possible, to be certain all your equipment and services, including your business and home lines and internet are digital/IP/Voip/2027 compatible. Use any opportunity, where you are upgrading equipment and services, to improve your costs, agree a better contract and be sure to max-upgrade your tech stuff, wherever you can, to pave the way to a more fulfilling and enjoyable, home and business efficient, safe and secure life, all set to make the most of our new digital world. Invest in a future of what I call "Lifestyle Technology".

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Humans & Communications – where would we be without each other?

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