When we have mentioned the ISDN Switch Off of 2025, and the gradual “stop sell” between now and 2023, the general response is followed by an eye roll and tut. As if to say, “as if Openreach will hit target”.

Openreach confirms 117 Telephone Exchanges that will no longer be used for the provision of new telephone lines or new traditional broadband products introducing an ISDN Switch Off

The plans are well underway, as in June this year (yes, June 2021) Openreach have confirmed that 117 exchanges will have a “stop sell” on all legacy voice and data products that use a traditional phoneline (PSTN/ ISDN) this move comes after a successful stop sell trial in Salisbury.

From June the 29^th 2021, all orders of non-Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) Broadband or SoGEA Broadband (Single Order Generic Ethernet Access) will be rejected (where one of these products are available).

The Details:

• The “stop sell” will apply at both commercial and residential premises that have access to one of the FTTP or SoGEA broadband products
• Where the afore mentions premises have access to FTTP/ SoGEA Broadband, stop the sale of all legacy products will apply to include PSTN/ ISDN Phone lines and traditional Broadband. This means that no new services will be offered in these areas. Furthermore, also included in this are; moving providers, adding broadband to existing phone lines, or modifications such as bandwidth to an existing service or restarting a stopped service.
• When a premise has FTTP/ SoGEA available to order then only FTTP/SoGEA will be available for new supply. As this new wave of technology becomes available at additional premises post stop to sell, these premises will be added to the stop sell immediately.

If you are in any of these areas below or want to get ahead of the curve. Please feel free to get in touch and we can talk you through the implications and benefits of moving to fibre connectivity and a cloud voice telephone service. E: liam.bonthron@dbgroupeurope.com

ISDN Switch Off - Stop Sell – Affected Telephone Exchanges:

Further Reading

ISDN & PSTN Switch off - DB Group - Business Utilities Simplified (dbgroupeurope.com)

ISDN Switch Off - Updated News | BTT Comms Ltd.

DB Comms has supported Govan Housing Association offering technical advice, hardware support and mobile broadband packages. In order, to help underpin its digital response to Covid-19 by helping facilitate projects like the ‘Digital Lending Libraries'.

Govan Digital Lending libraries have been carrying out incredible work during the #covid19 pandemic. This helps to increase access and connectivity locally to individuals most excluded during this time.

What are the Govan Digital Lending Libraries?

"The project aims to increase access to devices and connectivity locally to individuals most excluded through the Covid-19 pandemic. We aim to provide partner organisations with technology, support and training to allow them to operate their own lending libraries. Allowing them to reach those most in need."

What activites have the project carried out since receiving funding?

"In our Round 1 and Round 2 funding, we deployed a total of 175 devices with 2 months unlimited data to 16 organisations. These organisations have been operating agile services in response to the Covid-19 crisis across the greater Govan area." These included…

• Elderpark Housing Association
• Linthouse Housing Association
• Glasgow Life
• Plantation Productions
• Unlock Employment
• Gilded Lily
• Govan HELP
• Govan Youth Information Project
• Make Do and Grow
• NSPCC
• Aberlour
• Sunny Govan Radio Station
• The Glasgow Barons
• The Govan Stones
• Urban Roots
• The Preshal Trust

We also provided 2 rounds of Digital Champion Training via the Mhor Collective which saw 15 staff/volunteers from each organisation trained on how to support individuals remotely and build basic digital skills.

How has the project made a difference to the lives of people and communities being supported?

Individuals receiving devices identified several ways in which the devices and connectivity they received made a positive impact to their lives, allowing them to…

• Use Social Media
• Entertainment Purposes
• Updated COVID-19 Information
• Shopping
• Online Learning
• Accessing Support

Individual comments highlighted the importance that the device had played in their experience of lockdown:

“It’s helped me and my brother by helping us to communicate with people and accessing school work. We really appreciate you all for helping by loaning us these devices”.

“It’s made it easier for my Art group and keeping in touch with friends and family through Zoom also great for online shopping, games and great for information. “It’s made a crucial difference to my life. In my opinion being provided with a digital tablet with data for internet meant I had access to daily covid updates… it allowed me to take care of my medical condition by emailing my Dr's practice for prescriptions especially during lockdown”

“It allowed me to do volunteer community journalism ( at a safe and social distance) for a local community radio station”

“having this device and being online has really enhanced my life and given me access to crucial services which I would not have been able to have. A long term contract with a mobile phone credit and data is expensive, so it has positively enhanced my wellbeing and mental health as I was and felt connected during this stressful and difficult time as I am a carer to a person with a mental illness too”

What impact did this have on organisations?

Participating third sector organisations recognised that

having devices as an additional resource was a benefit in multiple ways including:

• Allowing them to reach more people
• Engagement with people previously unknown to their services
• Development of new services

Organisations Responses:

How has the project made a difference to the lives of people and communities being supported?

Organisation 1

“We were worried about many of [organisation name] volunteers when lockdown began, as a signficiant proportion of these individuals previously reported volunteering time as their primary source of social engagement… These devices we received allowed volunteers and staff to collaborate on projects and keep the momentum of our community output going through difficult times”

Organisation 2

“The fact that they felt cared for and connected at this time was a big deal for some.”

Organisation 3

What challenges have you been faced with when delivering the project?

Supply of Devices
This project required that we buy high numbers of the same model of tablet so that each individual organisation and digital champion supporting tenants had the same experience and platform to use. This created a small logisitcal challenge in getting all devices shipped.

Data Activation
Our devices all offered 2 months unlimited data as part of the lending offer, however, we were not able to activate each device individually due to the high numbers. We therefore allowed participating organisations a week or two between receiving their devices and data activation to allow them to deploy devices to recipients. If an organisation wasn’t able to get all devices out in time or there was a delay in getting a device out to an individual that meant some of the 2 months data was used before they received it.

Evaluation

As means of evaluating the project we developed two separate surveys for participating organisations and individual recipients. For organisations, these surveys were emailed round and undertaken without much difficulty. For recipients we used the Association’s internal text messaging service to send several texts over the course of the project inviting individuals to let us know their thoughts on the impact it has had and challenges they faced. Uptake on this survey was relatively low with only 10% of learners participating.

Read the full article:

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The growth of the cloud

The number of businesses relying on cloud storage solutions has rapidly increased in the last five years, with half of all IT spend going on cloud storage during 2018.[1]  The trend is set to continue with use of and reliance on cloud-based systems increasing in the coming years.

Cloud solutions can be found for almost all strands of your business, typically hosting IT infrastructure and applications like telephony, email and CRM.

The importance of staying connected

Of course, the cloud can only enable a business to function more efficiently and cost-effectively, if the internet connection is 100% reliable.  An unreliable internet connection is no longer just a matter of downtime on emails – but it can jeopardise many business processes, putting all an organisation’s cloud-stored data under threat.

Many businesses spend time and money investigating the correct software packages and hosted services to ensure optimum productivity for their company.  This investment can be undermined when a business chooses a cheap, unreliable broadband product that cannot support these cloud-based services.

Ensure your connection won’t fail

Generally, SMEs operate with a basic (ADSL) or fibre (FTTC) broadband connection.  These connection types are often highly contended, meaning they slow down at peak times of the day.  They nearly always come with a loose service level agreement (SLA), often covering the provider in the event of an outage.

There are lots of data connectivity options to choose from, ideally depending on size and budget an Ethernet service will be dedicated 1:1 contentions and typically have a SLA stating a 7 hour fix, often these can be supplied with a range of failover solutions. For the budget conscious among us there are several converged or assured options across ADSL / VDSL circuits, which could deliver the required service levels and quality, within your budget.

Take our advice

However, complex your situation we can help you find the right solution.   Review your connection options now, and you still have time to take advantage of the Government Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme, where you can claim up to £3000.00 towards the cost of a new Gigabit Connection.  Gives us a call on 0330 058 3405 to speak to one of our specialists.

[1] Ashok, A. 2018. Four Trends In Cloud Computing CIOs Should Prepare For In 2019. 5th July. Forbes. [Online]. [1 November 2018]. Available from: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2018/07/05/four-trends-in-cloud-computing-cios-should-prepare-for-in-2019/#4ba5d26e4dc2

It’s a safe bet that your business uses multiple methods of communication every single day. From email and instant messaging to phone system calls and video, customers of today expect to be able to contact you in a way and at a time that suits them. In order to thrive, your business, has to give your staff the communication tools to help them be responsive, adaptable and reliable.

For many businesses, the good old trusty telephone is still the predominant method of communication with customers, however if your phone system isn’t smart, you could be throwing away customers, reputation and money, a troublesome trio for any business.

So how can you make sure your communications model is future fit and enables you to be responsive, mobile, adaptive, and at the forefront of your industry?

A move away from the way things were

Many businesses still operate a with traditional PBX Phone System, typically running over Analogue or ISDN phonelines, these types of lines are scheduled to be switched off in 2025. PBX Phone Systems used to be fit for purpose when they first came into use, however in an evolving world these legacy systems have become inflexible, expensive to upgrade and in the main, their features and functionalities do not embrace todays demand for mobile and remote working.

How will Hosted Voice / Unified Communications help my business?

Here are just a few of the ways that a Hosted Voice / Unified Communications systems will help you save money and grow your business:

Only pay for what you need

Hosted Voice / Unified Communications are hosted remotely, and you pick and choose the services you require, and pay for only those.

Work smarter, anywhere

Hosted Voice / Unified Communications allows your employees access to all the communication tools they have in the office - wherever they are and whenever they need to.

Expand internationally - at the touch of a button

Need contact details in another country?  Get it simply and quickly, with your Hosted Voice / Unified Communications - having a physical office or equipment in another country is a necessity of the past.

Open up to collaboration

You can now integrate multiple communications and collaboration services into a single solution, enabling you to deliver the seamless experiences that your employees and your customers increasingly expect.

Keep up productivity

Hosted Voice / Unified Communications solutions are built with features and infrastructure specifically designed to limit any downtime and ensure you are online 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Let your team focus on what they’re supposed to

Because we manage and maintain your Hosted Voice / Unified Communications solution on your behalf, your IT team are free to focus on their area of expertise.

Hosted Voice / Unified Communications transforms your business making it truly fit for the future, contact one of the DB Group experts on 01506 848 848 to discuss how Hosted Voice / Unified Communications can help you make money, instead of wasting it.

Unified Communications is more than a passing fad. When designed, implemented and managed properly, a Unified Communications solution will continue to develop and deliver real benefits to your business; improvements in productivity, collaboration, customer service, flexibility and responsiveness whilst delivering cost savings in both the short and long term.

For more information, you can get in contact here.