Are you still using ISDN in your business…?
As opposed to PSTN, (Analogue Lines), that are usually used at home for your phone & broadband line, ISDN, (Integrated Services Digital Network), combines multiple pairs of copper cables, authorising businesses to operate with several telephone calls at once. Following the pattern with all legacy forms of communication, ISDN is pricey and restrictive; often seeing businesses spend several hundreds of pounds per quarter for telephone lines & calls alone.
ISDN is the still the chief of voice communications for most businesses, but the end-of-life is already in the distance for this 30 plus-year-old technology. BT have aired their intentions to ‘switch off’ all these services by 2025, and therefore drive forward the adoption of VoIP (Voice-over-IP) telephony by trades up and down the country.
SHALL I CHANGE OVER NOW?
There has never been a better time to examine your communications by choosing to axe your use of ISDN whenever your contract ends. You can benefit from the instantaneous cost savings while growing your elasticity by moving to VoIP technology.
Introducing VoIP shouldn’t be a distressing & pricey experience – there are many different services and options available these days, with such a competitive marketplace ensuring costs are kept to a minimum. Switching from older forms of telephony doesn’t mean you have to leave your numbers behind; you can promptly & easily port these crossways onto VoIP, enabling you to carry on making & receiving calls as you always have.
WHAT HAPPENS TO MY INTERNET CONNECTIVITY?
Switching from ISDN to VoIP means that your calls will no longer be petrified over those pairs of copper cables, but instead across your upmarket broadband connection. Plausibly, this means you’ll require a reasonably swift & steady internet connection to handle your volume of voice traffic, in addition to the data usage for visiting websites, sending/receiving emails and using cloud tools.
In some areas this isn’t an instantaneous possibility – if your business suffers from slow ADSL speeds, and has yet to benefit from access to a fibre connection of some form, you may be anxious about the prospect of doing away with the stability of ISDN.
But! In many cases, we’ve seen the savings made from switching from ISDN to VOIP aid in the explanation and funding of a dedicated fibre, (known as a Leased Line), connection. By upgrading to a Leased Line, you’ll benefit from a superfast fibre connection directly from your premises to the BT Exchange and achieve a much quicker connection, which is stable and supported by the network operator on a contractual service level agreement.
As Leased Lines are run on a dispersed basis to each premises, you are not constrained to the restrictions of the current Openreach fibre rollout plans – which sees fibre run only from the Exchange to the local cabinets, (with copper still being used between your building & the cabinet as before). Leased Lines, among various other connectivity options, are open to businesses wherever you may be sited.
With the extra speed & data capacity brought with the installation of a Leased Line, any pain of switching to VoIP is eliminated. Your Leased Line would be more than suitable to carry your voice traffic over VoIP, meanwhile providing your team with a much faster & reliable connection to the internet than ever before.
WHAT ARE MY OPTIONS?
There are several different facets of such a project… but, we’re here to help.
At iTeam, we specialise in learning our clients’ business and best-applying security technology to their needs.
If you would appreciate a free brief discussion about your operational challenges & to explore the threats to your business, please get in touch today