Although the termination of the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) has been delayed by two years, the channel still has an opportunity to get customers moving on transition plans.
The decision to postpone the PSTN switch-off from December 2025 to January 2027 was made earlier this year to give customers more time to get ready for the changes.
This extension might give the impression that the moment for action is some way off, but those operating in the comms space have urged the channel to encourage customers to view 2025 as the year to take steps to migrate to a digital alternative.
“With the PSTN switch-off delayed, 2025 is a valuable opportunity for SMEs to evaluate and select the best alternative communication systems to minimise disruption from the switch-off,” said Myles Leach, UK managing director at NFON.
“It also provides businesses with a chance to reassess current communication tools and think about what might serve their needs better in today’s distributed working environment. For example, adopting unified communications as a service [UCaaS] solutions can enhance operational agility, support a hybrid workforce, and make communications more efficient and effective,” he added.
Leach said the opportunity to talk strategically to customers about their comms strategies would create chances to sell more innovative solutions.
“That means more opportunities for the comms channel to expand beyond traditional voice services to include unified communications solutions that integrate voice, video, messaging and collaboration tools that will enrich customer experience and streamline communication workflows,” he said.
With the PSTN switch-off delayed, 2025 is a valuable opportunity for SMEs to evaluate and select the best alternative communication systems to minimise disruption from the switch-off
Myles Leach, NFON
Comms players have been consistently calling for more focus on the PSTN switch-off because it will take time to migrate smoothly.
In September, Geoff Campos, customer solutions architect at M247, stressed the importance of using time wisely.
“The two-year extension of the PSTN switch-off deadline gives businesses a bit more time to transition to internet-enabled networks. But this transition takes time and cannot wait until the last minute. The later a business postpones the shift, it runs the risk of not being ready on time, impacting key services and bringing about costly impacts,” he said.
He warned that the two years from next month would click down quickly and it would take customers months to migrate, before which they still faced decisions over which technologies to choose.
“Research M247 carried out in 2023, in the lead-up to the previous 2025 deadline, found that 80% of UK businesses believe migrating away from PSTN services will take up to six months, and over half (58%) had started planning for an alternative solution,” he said.
Leach said that next year would also see movement in contact centres, with customers also looking to upgrade their technology in that area.
“The picture that comes to mind of a traditional contact centre may be an impersonal office filled with rows of agents, but cloud-based systems are letting businesses move past these kinds of contact centre interactions. Agents no longer need to be in one location and businesses can easily adjust their customer service capacity as required,” he said.
“Cloud-based systems are making contact centre tech more scalable, meaning even small startups can now deploy basic chatbots or CRM [customer relationship management] systems to deliver a level of service previously only possible for big companies with deep pockets,” he added.
