Will PSTN and ISDN switch off drive a new wave of mobile first working?
In many countries, businesses have continued to use fixed lines, desk phones and other interfaces. With PSTN switch off imminent, is there any real reason why they should continue to do so? As an operator, why not emulate Nordic telcos and take the opportunity to give your B2B customers a complete, mobile first solution that delivers?
Help your business customers transition from the PSTN to a fully mobile solution?
At the recent MVNO Nation event in Valencia, one speaker noted that the coming PSTN (and ISDN) switch off could be a trigger for a new wave of mobile adoption by the business sector. That’s because businesses will seek alternative ways to access core cloud communications services – and mobility provides a ready-made solution.
PSTN shutdown is going to happen all across Europe. According to Cullen International, the timeline across nine countries studied ranges from 2019 to 2025 – so this is already happening, and more and more users will be affected, in some very large markets indeed.
As a result, businesses will have a choice – to replace PSTN connections and devices that use IP with something else, or to seek an alternative.
But why would this drive mobility, though?
It’s a good question. In the opinion of the speaker, this is because the landlines that are still widely used in many countries will simply be terminated. Businesses won’t actually seek to replace these with direct IP connections, because they can just eliminate them, reducing costs and shifting users towards mobile access to services which they currently obtain over IP connections.
Of course, they will continue to need office-based internet access, but they may not need legacy SIP trunks or other connectivity options. But, a mobile-first approach can save them money and which reflects a different way of working, adapted to today’s demands.
Indeed, from our perspective in the Nordics, we’ve been wondering why this hasn’t happened before. It has in Norway and Sweden, for example. That’s because businesses recognised that users generally prefer their mobiles and, business owners wonder why they should pay for both a mobile and a landline, plus the devices necessary to access network services. Better to standardise on something that everyone prefers - and that they have with them at all times. The mobile.
Encouraging and helping users to shift to mobile access, then, helps businesses to save money and rationalises connectivity options for their employees. So, faced with imminent closure of legacy landline connections, it seems likely that the speaker is right. Businesses can shift to mobile-first approaches and save money on unnecessary connectivity options.
Learn from the Nordic experience
We’ve been helping operators in the Nordics and many other countries pursue just such an approach for more than 20 years now. The same features available on an office PBX have been enabled on our solutions for GSM, UMTS, LTE and now 5G networks – providing a seamless experience.
When you take these capabilities and combine them with deep integration to Teams, Active Directory and other common services, then there really is no reason for an employee to need more than a mobile and their laptop. Put simply, the desk phone’s days are numbered. It’s just a surprise that this move hasn’t happened sooner.
Perhaps the pandemic has been another driver, forcing managers to rethink where their teams are located, or perhaps it’s the ubiquitous adoption of Teams – regardless, the shutdown of PSTN networks provides a clear deadline that can no longer be avoided.
Leverage the Gintel Cloud PBX – a complete solution
So, how will you get ready for this? What you need is a complete, modern Cloud PBX solution that supports all key comms functionalities, but which can be accessed over any mobile connection – and will evolve with your network as you roll out new capabilities, from 5G SA, for example.
Gintel’s Cloud PBX solution is the answer. Optimised over multiple generations of mobile networks, with SIP and legacy connectivity options, and backed by integration with Teams and other enterprise software solutions, it’s a complete package, available from the cloud so you can offer a hosted service to your customers – and help them manage the transition from PSTN to a future-proof solution that saves them money and builds new revenue for you!
Would you like to explore it? Book a demonstration with our team – and we’ll show you how you can follow the Nordic path.
Link to: https://www.cullen-international.com/news/2019/06/New-benchmark-on-the-state-of-play-of-PSTN-shutdown-and-copper-decommissioning-in-Europe.html
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