What the ISDN switch off means for your business?
What the ISDN switch off means for your business?
Earlier this year BT announced to switch off the ISDN networks and replace with SIP by 2025. Although it’s still a decade away ISDN users need to come up with a strategy to avoid having their phone lines cut when the service comes to its final breath. In fact, BT will start to switching off the service from 2020.
ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) are digital lines. They are formatted as either ISDN2e or ISDN30
SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) is used to establish a voice connection between two end points across the Internet. SIP trunking delivers telephone lines using an external data connection as the bearer for the purpose of making and receiving calls.
ISND channel over SIP trunk
Benefit of SIP over ISDN
Scalability
ISDN services are limited across the channel blocks, SIP instead, is deployed across a business’s existing WAN. This means that provided the bandwidth exists to handle the traffic, channels can be dynamically added or subtracted as they are required.
Portability
In the ISDN deployment, the line and channel block, comes with an allocated phone number.
In a SIP based service numbers are separate from the channel blocks, which has the benefit of helping to lower the cost of the service. This means that calls to SIP numbers can be diverted incredibly easily to other locations.
Interoperability
SIP voice is transferred as IP (Internet Protocol), this means that customers with video enabled handsets can make video calls.
Same functionality is also available on an ISDN service but, the limited bandwidth requirement of video over ISDN make this an economically unjustifiable option.
Quality
SIP can be delivered across high bandwidth connections which means higher levels of vocal quality can be delivered from end to end. Therefore customers can make and receive HD quality voice calls, assuming of course their handsets are compatible.
SIP services could utilise a primary service with automatic failover to a second path, which is not available on ISDN.
Price
With ISDN your voice and data connection are on different lines. You will be able to save money by having both on one line. SIP trunking can reduce your costs by 50% on line rentals and 25% on calls.
When to migrate?
We would advise businesses to start thinking about migrating sooner rather than later. Now that ISDN is essentially viewed as a legacy platform, investment in it is likely to fall. This could mean that the standard of the existing network, and support infrastructure, could begin to suffer the effects of being retired well before the 2025 switch off date.
How can we help?
Nexus IP can explain and advise you about the benefits of migrating to SIP. Unify, our preferred partner, offers robust and scalable SIP Trunking solutions that match the communication requirements of your business; streamline calls and connectivity charges, with the potential to eliminate call charges between business sites.
For advice and information about the benefits and savings of switching to a SIP service call 03452001770 or email: info@nexusip.com and we’ll get back to you.