PSTN Switch Off

The Public Switched Telephone Network is the UK’s traditional telephone system that has been in use for more than a century. While it has served the UK’s telecoms network well since then, it uses obsolete copper wiring that has become fragile and impractical to maintain.

The PSTN has served as the basis for the UK’s telecoms since 1876. Almost 150-years later it has become – unsurprisingly – obsolete. Technology has come on leaps and bounds in the last few decades, and even in the last few years, with the advent of smart phones, the cloud, the IoT, etc. Newer digital technologies such as fibre broadband have overtaken the PSTN, so BT Openreach have decided to switch off the PSTN in 2025 in order to focus on these more efficient and innovative technologies.

It’s estimated that, as of March 2023, at least 2 million UK businesses still operate on legacy phone lines and networks. If you’re one of them, it’s time to start making the switch and futureproof your business. By upgrading sooner rather than later to fibre broadband and digital voice services such as cloud-based phone systems and SIP trunks, you’ll get ahead of the competition and save yourself a headache down the line.

The PSTN will be switched off in 2025, but it’s highly recommended to get ahead of the game and start your switch sooner rather than later.

Most certainly! Just because you’ve gone digital doesn’t mean you have to lose your business’s established phone number. In fact, with the changeover, you’ll be able to make calls from anywhere, on any device, all from the same number. And if you want to change your number to something more memorable, that’s easy too.