john.liley@fidelity-group.co.uk, Author at Fidelity Group UK

PSTN and ISDN 2025 Switch Off

In 2025, the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) is being switched off by BT Openreach, which means everyone, including businesses, currently using PSTN-based services will need to move to another service before then.

The alternative? Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), a solution that transmits voice calls and data using an internet connection.

This is a major step towards the United Kingdom’s mass IP-network migration, with VoIP core networks set to replace all the legacy PSTN services in just a few years’ time.

What is the PSTN and ISDN Switch Off?

The Public Switch Telephone Network (PSTN) is aging and will reach the end of life in December 2025. The PSTN supports a number of Openreach products which Communication Providers (CPs) purchase at regulated pricing and often sell to businesses and consumers, wrapped up in their own line rental, broadband and call package deal. These include: Wholesale Line Rental (WLR) and Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN).

ISDN is available in two common variants: ISDN2 supports channels in pairs and you can have between 2 ISDN channels or 8 ISDN channels. ISDN30 is provided for larger business customers usually, with options to have between 8 ISDN channels and 30 ISDN channels on each service. A single ISDN channel will provide a customer with 1 concurrent call at a time. At the end of December 2025 traditional telephony, including fixed lines and services in the Public Switch Telephone Network (PSTN) will be switched off and withdrawn from service.

Embrace the future of telephony by replacing your landline with VoIP before the Public Switch Telephone Network (PSTN) is switched off in 2025.

Why is Openreach withdrawing the PSTN and ISDN network in December 2025?

The Public Switch Telephone Network allows calls to be made over copper telephone lines and fibre telephone lines using analogue signalling and is known as “traditional telephony”. As broadband services have increased in reliability and quality over the past 10 years, the PSTN has evolved to support this change to an almost completely digital network using digital technology. This means there will no longer be a requirement for the majority of traditional fixed line telephony users for fixed-analogue services in the coming years and traditional fixed lines and calls will cease to exist. The priority for Openreach moving forward, is to maintain a high availability fibre first network, as a result their legacy infrastructure and equipment serving the PSTN is now ageing and becoming more difficult to maintain.

What other lines and calls services are impacted by the 2025 closure?

The Public Switch Telephone Network currently supports WLR, ISDN2 and ISDN30, Local Loop Unbundling Shared Metallic Path Facilities (LLUSMPF), Narrowband Line Share and Classic Products. These products are commonly mentioned by providers when discussing the PSTN Withdrawal but most providers fail to mention the connectivity products which are using these services like Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Lines (ADSL) Broadband and Fibre To The Cabinet (FTTC) Broadband which will be impacted the WLR End of Life project. This is because the underlying line product is being withdrawn, therefore there is no underlying WLR telephone service to support the broadband.

For Fidelity connectivity solutions click here.

How and when will Openreach start withdrawing service?

Openreach’s method to withdraw WLR and ISDN telephony products is still to be confirmed. Their strategy for UK wide withdrawal is still undefined in regards to if this will be at exchange level, geographical area or premise technology availability. Openreach have begun trailing the withdrawal in two exchanges, with the first starting as early as September 2019. This is the date CPs expect Openreach to issue a formal notification of stop sell in their Salisbury Exchange, Wiltshire. This exchange is the Openreach Full Fibre Trial and is the first of two Openreach Trial Exchanges, which will see full withdrawal of WLR and ISDN by December 2022. The second exchange is the Mildenhall Exchange which will see the first Single Order (SO) trial begin circa January 2020. This exchange will focus on a complete withdrawal of services by the December 2022 also, even if no fibre is available. Premises serviced by the Mildenhall Exchange will be replaced with SOGEA and SOTAP products and the communication provider will need to provide an over the top VoIP replacement service such as a hosted PBX system license or SIP Trunking.

What will happen to Alarm lines, payment terminals and other special line rental services after 2025?

During the Public Switch Telephone Network closure, all these services need to be tested with new IP technology and the SO products. This means alarm line companies, payment terminals, traffic light systems, payphone lines, emergency pendants, dialysis machines, telemetry devices and any other special service must be tested by the equipment manufacturers.

Will Openreach meet the December 2025 Deadline?

Openreach are adamant the December 2025 deadline is set in stone. Public Switch Telephone Network (PSTN) Lines that have not migrated to alternative services in April 2025 will be deemed as Orphaned Assets and Openreach intend to work with CPs to identify and migrate these customer to alternative products by the December 2025 deadline so they do not lose service. The actions to be taken are yet to be defined and the difficulties identifying the use of the line, and in some cases the end user customer, along with the contractual agreement to move is still to be confirmed but be assured, services will be withdrawn and customers will be impacted should they not move in time.

Credit article and imagery: Digital Wholesale Solutions | www.digitalwholesalesolutions.com

Top tips for improving cx with live chat

Live chat isn’t just an option for customer service anymore – it’s something your audience expects. More than 30% of customers expect live chat on your website, and 42% say they prefer this method to email and social media.

Of course, not just any live chat experience will do. As a component of your complete customer experience strategy, your live chat needs to be tuned to your target audience. The right strategy ensures you can highlight the unique values of your brand, delight your customers, and even take a little pressure off other customer service channels.

So, how do you use live chat correctly for customer service?

1. Use the Right Technology

Using the right technology is the foundation for all your live chat efforts, so start with a live chat solution you can trust. LiveChat is one of the most popular tools trusted by 27,000 companies worldwide, and it integrates directly with Akixi 3000 for excellent omnichannel reporting – with customisable chat widgets to help keep you on brand, and a centralised environment making it easier for your customer service team to keep track of multiple conversations at once.

2. Maintain a Human Vibe

It’s important to remember live chat and chatbots are two different things. While people love the speed and simplicity of live chat, they don’t always love the idea of speaking to a robot. With this in mind, try to maintain your ‘human’ essence.

Encourage your employees to be creative with their chat responses, provided it doesn’t go against your brand image. You might want to bring your chat to life with emojis, to make you seem less robotic. It’s also important to be empathetic and engaging with your responses. Make sure your employees aren’t giving curt or complex answers to questions. A set of canned responses to common questions that your employees can adjust to suit their needs may be helpful here.

3. Focus on Speed

Speed is essential for a good live chat experience. Around 79% of customers say they prefer live chat as a means of communication, because of the immediacy it offers over other channels.

Looking for ways to improve your employees’ response times can be a great way to boost the quality of your live chat strategy. You might want to consider the following:

Providing template responses for your employees to use when necessary, can help to speed things up – so that they can send immediate answers to frequently asked questions.
Making it quick and easy to proofread and grammar-check a comment by embedding spellchecking systems into your live chat app.
Using automatic routing to send chat messages through to the team member with the most availability, or the right skills to solve a specific problem.

4. Provide Positive Customer Experiences

Just because live chat is more fast-paced than other forms of customer service, that doesn’t mean it should be any less engaging, or positive. Embedding your live chat technology into an ecosystem where you can also access contact centre and CRM information will help your employees to personalise conversations and customer experiences more quickly and effectively.

Providing training to help employees show more empathy to customers, and ensure they remain patient during difficult situations is important too. You might even use dashboard metrics and tracking statistics to help inform team leaders when a hybrid working agent is having trouble with a customer. This will ensure even those working remotely can get help when they need it.

Additionally, encouraging your employees to use phrases that express possibilities such as “That’s an excellent idea, I’ll bring it up with the team” rather than those with negative terms, like “We can’t do that”, helps to reassure the customer that you understand their frustrations.

5. Offer Users the Option to Go Beyond Chat

Chat is fantastic for getting quick answers to issues, but it’s not always the most appropriate channel for every need. You may also need to invest in video and audio-conferencing tools, so your customers can request a conversation when necessary. Provide your customers with buttons to click if they need to move the chat to the next stage on an alternative channel.

Another option could be to offer screen-sharing tools, so your agents can collaborate with your customers in real time and guide them through various complicated processes. This, along with other forms of more advanced communications, can make it quicker and easier for your agents to deliver impressive experiences to your audience.

6. Record and Measure

The best way to improve any form of customer service is to analyse and learn from every interaction. Start by determining how you’re going to record your conversations for training, compliance, and educational purposes. You may need to implement specific strategies to ensure sensitive information is removed from certain records to avoid compliance issues.

If you’re going to be recording any conversation, remember you need to ask for your customer’s consent, and ensure you have a secure environment in place for storing those recordings.

Once you’ve planned your recording strategy, determine how you’re going to keep track of important metrics with analytics. Tools such as Akixi can help you to measure historical and real-time metrics such as:

First-response rate: How often you solve an issue in the first response
Total conversions: The total number of conversions initiated by live chat
Total users or conversations: The number of conversations your employees deal with each day.
Response time: How quickly your employees respond to a live chat request

7. Pay Attention to Customer Feedback

Finally, don’t forget to pay attention to the feedback provided by your customers on your live chat application. Many solutions come with the option to embed requests for feedback into the conversation as an automated response. When the chat ends, this triggers the system to ask your customer how they would rate the service.

You can also ask your customers to leave more specific feedback by providing a message box where they can share any additional comments which they think are relevant to their experience.

This will give you an excellent opportunity to pinpoint the areas where you might be able to improve the live chat experience for your customers.

Embrace Live Chat the Right Way

Live chat is a fantastic tool for today’s businesses, particularly as customers continue to embrace digital forms of communication to interact with brands. If you want the best possible chance of converting and impressing your customers with live chat, follow the tips above.

Credit article: Akixi | www.akixi.com

Fidelity Group Reveals New Brand Identity – Empowering everything as a service (Xaas)

Fidelity Group, a leader in creating customer inspired technology and communication services since 2008, announced the launch of its new corporate brand identity. These changes come at a time when the company is evolving its service offerings and expanding its reach across the UK.

“Since inception, Fidelity has successfully diversified and scaled its service offerings while broadening their footprint across the UK,” said Greg Sellars, Group Head of Marketing of Fidelity. “Our new brand identity reflects our market-leading position and demonstrates the comprehensive services that we bring to our customers and partners.

Fidelity’s goal is to lead change within the telecoms industry and bring the X factor back into business. They want to empower companies to adopt new technologies and cloud solutions for greater efficiency, business optimisation and cost saving.

“While our name remains the same, our logo and website have changed significantly to better represent who Fidelity is and what we bring to the market for our customers and partners,” commented Alan Shraga, Managing Director at Fidelity Group. “Our new identity is innovative, forward-thinking, and customer centric – words we would use to describe not only our image but also the services that we provide to our customers and partners.

What Is XaaS? Everything (Anything) as a service.

What is XaaS? XaaS is a group of services that helps users engage in cloud computing. Many professionals in IT use XaaS because it can recognise several types of products and technologies that they can then offer as services to clients. If you work in IT or are interested in the technology field, you might benefit from learning about XaaS in case you ever want to use it for your own cloud computing. In this article, we define what XaaS is and explore some of its most common benefits, followed by tips for using it.

What is XaaS?

XaaS stands for anything/ everything as a service and refers to the collection of services that people can offer through cloud computing. While there are other popular services in cloud computing, such as software as a service (SaaS) and infrastructure as a service (IaaS), XaaS combines all of these into one category. The emergence of XaaS might result from innovations in technology that allow users to group services together and the growing popularity of information technology processes in the business world.

For example, many companies that use XaaS typically provide digital B2B, or business-to-business, services such as developing applications and managing servers. This means that these companies can use XaaS to offer services to other companies that comprehensively manage their IT processes.

Benefits of XaaS

Here are some of the key benefits of using XaaS:

Improved purchasing options

One of the clearest benefits that XaaS can offer is a new option for purchasing cloud computing services. Before XaaS, customers typically had to purchase individual products and services to install on their devices manually, such as software, servers and cybersecurity programs. However, XaaS allows users to purchase different levels of subscriptions to services that they can access and install on their devices from almost any location. This can benefit companies by enabling them to only pay for the products they want to use and to adjust their payment plans and subscriptions according to how their needs change over time.

Higher-level opportunities for IT professionals

XaaS can also be beneficial to companies by taking care of basic IT operations. This can allow IT professionals to spend more time focusing on higher-level projects that might require their attention. For example, if a company typically employs IT professionals to oversee data storage, it can start using XaaS to organize its data and transition those IT employees to more complex projects, such as developing new applications or creating new infrastructure for communication systems. This can also lead to more innovations in technology that result from IT professionals having time to pursue creative or independent projects.

Increased adaptability for businesses

Another benefit of using XaaS is that it can help businesses adapt to new conditions in the market where they operate. This can occur because XaaS provides ways to quickly start new technology projects, such as coding new applications and creating new responses to cybersecurity threats. As XaaS operates on the cloud, users can also typically access their projects quickly and scale their infrastructure using automated processes, which can help businesses adjust their operations according to market demands and emerging technologies.

XaaS also allows for resource pooling and responsive elasticity support, so businesses can add or remove services from their XaaS subscriptions easily, depending on which services they use more frequently throughout the year.

Higher productivity

Using XaaS can also benefit a business because it can result in higher overall productivity. This is because XaaS services typically streamline and automate processes that might otherwise take long periods of time to complete. Using XaaS can reduce the time required for certain projects and allow employees to finish more work in a shorter length of time.

Credit article: https://www.indeed.com/

Top 3 reasons why we suggest you have a look at your business internet post lockdown

The last year-and-a-bit has been very challenging for businesses, especially those who’ve had to shut their doors for long periods due to lockdown restrictions. And although we may not be out of the woods quite yet, it looks like normality is just around the corner.

Offices, retail stores and businesses within the hospitality industry have all gradually reopened in recent months — with a tentative aim to get UK workplaces back to full capacity by June 21st when there’ll be no limit on social contact.

If all goes to plan, things are going to get very busy, very quickly. In which case, businesses nationwide will need to ensure they have the infrastructure to handle the sudden spike in activity from both customers and staff.

For many businesses, this may mean upgrading your current internet connectivity to something faster and more reliable to cope with the increased demand. If you currently have standard broadband, then a leased line (sometimes referred to as business ethernet) will probably better meet these requirements.

A leased line is essentially fibre-optic that runs directly to the premises and isn’t shared by anyone else. In other words, it is a dedicated line set up to serve only your company. As such, leased lines can offer symmetrical speeds of up to 10Gbs, ten times faster than regular fibre.

Furthermore, leased lines are considered the gold standard in terms of connection quality and reliability, making them ideal for organisations that require an uncompromised and consistent data connection.

Another option is SoGEA (Single order Generic Ethernet Access), which is a dedicated line, of sorts, in that it is reserved solely for the internet and does not require a phone line. You receive exactly the same performance as FTTC or GFast, so not quite as speedy as a leased line, but it may be a viable alternative depending on your budget and requirements.

With this in mind, here are three statistics to suggest you may need to upgrade your business internet in preparation for coming out of lockdown.

Half of all UK workplaces expect remote working to continue post-lockdown ^{(source. O2, ICM, YouGov)}
Businesses across the country were forced to adopt remote working conditions during the lockdown. However, reports suggest that employers now recognise the benefits, with more than half expected to continue giving staff the flexibility to work from home.

This kind of setup requires an extensive, unified comms system with fast and flexible internet to support hosted telephone systems, remote network access and various other forms of media sharing.

59% of customers will continue to spend more online ^{(source. ChanelAdvisor, Dynata)}
In the wake of the pandemic, online sales sky-rocketed. Predictably, many of these sales were attributed to sectors that have historically dominated the e-commerce space, such as fashion and tech. Still, the crisis has seen less likely industries sell online also. These include restaurants and pubs, offering customers click-to-collect, and many B2B companies, facilitating the sale of their services through e-commerce.

Why is this important? Well, it looks like this isn’t going to suddenly stop when lockdown ends. Customers are keen to continue shopping online — citing cost, convenience and safety as the main reasons. As a result, businesses will require a robust and reliable internet connection to cope with the increased demand for various systems and processes that support their online sales model.

Leisure travel is expected to skyrocket but business travel will drop off ^{(source. McKinsey)}
Circling back to what we said earlier about continued remote working, it looks as though businesses will be travelling a lot less in general, especially now that video conferencing has become the preferred method for businesses to meet. This essentially comes down to the practicality, efficiency and convenience of video conferencing over long-distance travel. Still, it’s also worth noting that more businesses are conscious of their environmental impact, adopting new ways of increasing their sustainability efforts. Regardless of the driving force, companies will need to ensure they have the connectivity to handle quality video.

Meanwhile, leisure travel is expected to take a massive upturn, as people will be keen to get out and about when restrictions are lifted. There is a building demand for national and international travel, which means businesses in the travel and hospitality sector will need to equip themselves to manage the surge of inquiries, bookings and processing, most of which are handled online.

Why choose Fidelity Group for your business internet
While the transition out of lockdown is going to be hugely beneficial to businesses, it’s also going to put a massive strain on those who are unprepared for the sudden spike in activity from both customers and staff.

At Fidelity Group, we can help get you up to speed, establishing a service based on your internet requirements, ensuring solutions remain tailored now and in the longer term. We then bolster this with 24/7/365 dedicated technical support, keeping your business connected, and providing first-rate assistance whenever you need us. See what our clients have to say by visiting our Trustpilot review page here.

For more information about our data services, speak to a member of our team today.

Broadband, Fibre, Leased lines — What terminology should you be using?

Ever since the days of dial-up internet ended, it’s fair to say that ‘broadband’ has become the preferred terminology whenever we talk about high-speed internet connectivity. After all, this has been the industry standard for a long while, both commercially and in the home.

But as new technologies emerge and older ones fall by the wayside, it’s important to keep up-to-date with changing terminologies. Broadband isn’t exactly what it was when it first arrived on the scene in the early 2000s, and it certainly won’t be the same moving forward.

Broadband, fibre, Gfast, leased lines… There are so many variants that it can be slightly confusing, especially when you’re trying to find the best solution to meet your business’ connectivity requirements both now and in the longer term.

With that being said, let’s run through some of these differences together and see how things stack up.

Broadband
Before broadband, internet access was achieved with ‘narrowband’ dial-up connections that were much slower in comparison. In that sense, ‘broadband’ is actually a relative term because it can only be understood in context — i.e. as opposed to narrowband.

The broadband we use today comes in so many different forms (which we’ll come to in a moment) that the term is no longer specific enough. This is where knowing your apples from your oranges becomes so important.

Fibre (FTTC, FTTP, Gfast)
“Fibre is just faster broadband, right?”

Well, sure, but this is where things start to get a little bit more complicated. Let’s start with a simple overview of how fibre works.

Unlike copper wires of an ADSL connection, fibre-optic materials are used instead, which allows for far less signal degradation and much faster broadband speeds. Businesses already using fibre typically benefit from 1,000 times more bandwidth and up to 10 times faster internet speeds than traditional lines. This is also sometimes referred to as ‘cable broadband’ and is pretty indicative of where the technology is going on the whole.

Fibre can be FTTC (fibre-to-the-cabinet) or FTTP (fibre-to-the-premises). In the case of FTTC, fibre-optic cabling is laid to the cabinets, where copper wiring is then used to provide a connection to the premises. However, a newer version of FTTC, called Gfast, utilises specialist equipment fitted to the cabinet to alter the speed frequencies of the connection, resulting in speeds up to four times faster than traditional FTTC.

In the case of FTTP, fibre-optic cable is laid both to the cabinets and the premises. This allows for ultrafast speeds of up to 1Gbs (much quicker than FTTC).

Both FTTC and FTTP have their merits, but it ultimately comes down to cost and how much your business relies on the internet.

It’s also worth noting that you will be sharing the infrastructure with other users. And whilst this may not be an issue for small businesses, larger organisations with greater demands on their internet will likely prefer a more robust solution. This is where leased lines come into the mix.

Leased lines
A leased line (sometimes referred to as business ethernet) is essentially fibre-optic that runs directly to the premises, except you are not sharing it with other users. Simply put, it is a dedicated line set up to serve only your company.

Leased lines can provide symmetrical speeds of up to 10Gbs, which applies to both download and upload speeds. In terms of connection quality, leased lines are considered the gold standard and are much easier to ‘back up’ with an alternative line should anything affect the connection.

As such, leased lines are ideal for businesses and organisations that require an uncompromised and consistent connection, such as those with unified communications and other cloud services reliant on the internet.

Which is the right solution for you?
So now that we’ve clarified a few things, what is the best solution for your business?

While residential is typically okay with FTTC, home-workers consuming lots of data will likely need FTTP. The same can be said for small to medium-sized businesses, although depending on the size and nature of your organisation, business ethernet will probably be the better option.

Here at Fidelity Group, we can work alongside you to establish a service based on your internet requirements, ensuring solutions remain tailored now and in the longer term. We then bolster this with 24/7/365 dedicated technical support and customer service, keeping your business connected, and providing first-rate assistance whenever you need us. See what our clients have to say about us by visiting our Trustpilot review page here.

For more information about our data services, speak to a member of our team today.

A comparison of hosted telephone systems: Horizon and Teams

Hosted telephone systems are great for businesses and organisations with the infrastructure to support them. Not only do they provide a range of features for improving the flexibility and effectiveness of day-to-day communications, but they offer cost-saving benefits as well.

Now, what exactly do we mean when we talk about hosted telephone systems? In case you’re not entirely sure, hosted telephone systems are stored off-premises and hosted in the cloud. They essentially enable you to make calls (amongst other things) over the internet.

Obviously, it’s not always as straightforward as that. There are many hosted telephone systems available on the market, and each comes with its own benefits. Today we’ll be taking a comparative look at two of the most widely used: Gamma Horizon and Microsoft Teams.

A quick glance at the two
Gamma Horizon is a complete communications platform that provides an extensive range of fixed and mobile telephony capabilities. Microsoft Teams, on the other hand — well, Microsoft Teams is essentially the same thing.

Both systems are controlled via an accessible, user-friendly dashboard; both systems are software as a service, and both systems are easily configurable to an organisation’s changing requirements.

Most importantly, both systems allow you to make phone calls over the internet. But there are quite a few key differences between the two.

Perhaps the biggest distinction is Microsoft Teams’ focus on internal communications. As a platform, Teams primarily classifies itself as “group chat software” and doesn’t natively cater to businesses and organisations requiring dedicated external comms — at least not without integrating a separate telephone system for making and receiving outside calls.

Microsoft Teams predominantly facilitates the work environment — combining messaging, voice, video, conferencing and a plethora of features designed to bring teams together (hence the name) and enable collaboration.

On the flip side of things, Gamma Horizon is equally comprehensive with its call handling and management features, but it takes things even further by supporting external comms right out of the box. Couple this with business continuity features that are inherent in all cloud-based telephone systems, and Gamma Horizon immediately stands out as an all-in-one solution for any organisation where maintaining customer service/communications is paramount.

A closer look at key benefits
Now that we’ve got the formalities out of the way, let’s dive into some common features across both platforms and the collaboration benefits they bring:

Call allocation — Create groups for distributing and allocating calls across your team
Call park — Hold a call and pick it up on another phone
Call pickup — Answer a group member’s phone
Call transfer & handling — Transfer a call to any internal or external number
Conference calls & meetings — Hold voice and video meetings with up to 15 members
Click to call — One click or touch to call
Company directory — Group contacts across your site, department and company from a single handset
Group calling — Go from 1:1 calling to multiple participants
Multi-device — Have your choice of devices ring for incoming calls
Multi-media messaging — Exchange messages (Chat), video files and images
Voicemail — Play a message from your desktop and share with your team

When it comes to hosted telephone systems, Horizon and Teams are both solid choices for enhancing your organisation’s communications. Neither platform is necessarily better than the other, but there may be one that’s better suited to your current infrastructure and comms requirements.

If, for example, you are already embedded with Microsoft Office 365, then you will likely side with Teams. On the other hand, if you require an out of the box solution that supports both internal and external comms, then you’re probably better off with Horizon. Gamma Horizon supports external comms while enhancing internal communications through conferencing, video and a diverse suite of chat/update features for enabling group collaboration.

In either case, expert advice from a trusted provider is always encouraged. As a platinum Gamma partner, we at Fidelity Group have extensive experience assessing the best-hosted telephone systems for businesses of every size, in every sector.

We deliver unique, tailored solutions designed to nurture your communications, improve operations and strengthen your business. We then bolster this with 24/7/365 dedicated technical support and customer service. Our goal is to keep you connected and communicating always. Building relationships that last.

Speak to a member of our team today and see how we can implement the best telephony solution to accommodate your needs now and longer-term.

ISDN Switch-off – What you need to know

Ever since it was initially introduced in 1986, ISDN (Integrated Service Digital Network) has provided enhanced telecommunications to millions of businesses across the UK.

Considered a technical marvel at the time of its release, ISDN allowed for both voice and data services to be delivered over digital lines simultaneously. This not only paved the way for the high-speed internet era of the ’90s but also made it possible to incorporate early video-conferencing with traditional analogue phone systems.

With the recent advances in broadband connectivity, however, ISDN is now considered an outdated legacy system. And back in 2015, BT released a statement that it would phase out ISDN, with a view to switching off and permanently deactivating the network in 2025.

If this is the first time you’re hearing about the matter, then you’re not alone. As of right now, just over 2 million UK businesses are using an ISDN connection, with roughly a quarter unaware that the switch-off is even happening (source. TalkTalk).

But don’t worry, here’s everything you need to know.

What is ISDN and why is it being switched off?
In very simple terms, ISDN is a digital line that runs through copper wiring. Unfortunately, the main issue with ISDN is that it relies on physical infrastructure, the copper lines, which are costly to maintain and limited in their capabilities.

Newer connection types, such as FTTP and FTTC, use fibre technology, which is easier to maintain and provides better and quicker connectivity. As a result, copper lines will no longer be used for voice. However, the copper will remain in some circumstances, such as in FTTC — which is fibre to the cabinet and copper to the premises — but just for data purposes.

In either case, fibre technology looks to be the way for the future.

Businesses already using fibre typically benefit from 1,000 times more bandwidth, greater reliability, and up to 10 times faster internet speeds than using traditional lines. Having that faster, more reliable connectivity you get with fibre makes daily operations management a lot more efficient (think accessing your main server, uploading and sharing files and collaborating on the same work document etc.).

However, the most important change from the ISDN switch-off will be the effect it has on your existing telephone system.

Fibre and hosted telephone systems
As we mentioned earlier, copper lines will no longer be used for voice. This means anybody with an ISDN connection may need to update it to enable SIP functionality before the switch-off takes place. This will give businesses the option to move across to a hosted telephone system.

Hosted telephone systems operate via a data network hosted in the cloud instead of a circuit-switched network dedicated purely to telephony (e.g. ISDN) and are used to make calls (amongst other things) over the internet.

Typically referred to as VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol), making calls over the internet is generally cheaper and offers greater flexibility than traditional phone systems. That’s not to say that on-premises systems aren’t flexible, as they certainly provide a solid foundation for any comprehensive comms strategy, especially when integrated with the right hardware. It ultimately comes down to what system best meets your requirements going forward.

We covered many key benefits of hosted telephony in one of our previous blogs, as well as the differences between fully hosted solutions, hybrid solutions and on-premises solutions. For anybody unsure what those benefits and differences are, you can take a closer look here.

What should I do next?
Despite 2025 seeming a long way off, it’s always better to get a head start on preparations to ensure as smooth a transition as possible. Here at Fidelity Group, we can facilitate that transition for you — ensuring you have the right infrastructure in place to accommodate your communication requirements going forward in the digital age. We deliver unique, tailored solutions that are designed to nature your communications, improve operations and strengthen your business. We then bolster this with 24/7/365 dedicated technical support and customer service.

We can also look at your current setup, operations and activities to equip your business with the best combination of software and hardware, including mobile, to keep teams better connected and customers satisfied.

To discuss how the impending ISDN switch-off may affect your business and how you can take full advantage of hosted telephony, contact our experienced team today.

How unified communications can benefit SMEs

Unified communications — it’s a term thrown around a lot nowadays, frequently cited by key management whenever the conversation turns to strategies for making things ‘better’ and ‘more productive’.

And that’s a fair assessment for managers to make. Unified communications do indeed improve the way daily operations are handled, but it’s also helpful to understand why.

This is an important distinction. Many smaller to medium-sized businesses can sometimes overlook unified communications as a viable strategy — specifically those under the assumption that they’re simply too small to benefit.

However, the reality is actually very different.

Unified communications explained
Put simply; unified communications bring together a company’s various lines of communication, including telephony, email, video conferencing and instant messaging.

Unified communications can also integrate with various company-wide systems, such as collaborative applications for sharing and co-authoring documents and systems for billing, accounting and customer relations management.

Unified communications can be managed on-premises or via software hosted in the cloud as a service, typically referred to as UC as a Service (UCaaS). In either case, a single suite of software allows for seamless unification of all your communication channels.

Okay, now we’ve cleared that up, let’s circle back to where we started. How can unified communications help SMEs?

There are plenty of accumulative benefits, perhaps a little too generalised to simply mention, so we thought we’d break things down:

1. Unifies teams
Maintaining multiple systems for different aspects of the work environment only makes collaboration more difficult.

Even across smaller to medium-sized businesses, it’s important to make sure teams are always synced. Having a unified communications infrastructure keeps everybody aligned regardless of whether they’re on the other side of the office or the other side of the country.

2. Scalability
When lockdown first hit, many companies found their existing systems unable to cope with remote workers suddenly trying to use them simultaneously. This was because these systems were either too limited or not designed for remote access to begin with.

Cloud-based unified communications can quickly scale to accommodate changes inside or outside a business. For growing SMEs, this is particularly useful as it allows businesses to increase operations without worrying about compromising performance.

3. Flexibility
Because all communications are managed via a single platform, users can move effortlessly between devices and operating systems. This provides incredible flexibility and means that employees can switch seamlessly between messaging, live audio, and video. It also prevents users from being denied access to certain work documents or files whenever they don’t have a specific device to hand.

4. Strengthens security
It’s far easier to maintain a single platform’s security than it is to secure multiple applications and user accounts. By reducing the number of log-ins an employee is required to make, you’re also decreasing the likelihood that one of those systems will be compromised due to their using a poor password. On top of that, UCaaS typically come with additional cybersecurity and various encryption protocols specially designed to prevent fraudulent activity and data loss.

5. Improves customer service
Customers expect a seamless experience whether they call, message or email. Unified communications make it easier for businesses to provide an exceptionally high level of consistency regardless of where or how these interactions occur. Bolster this with some of the productivity benefits we’ve already listed, and businesses can better satisfy their customers without drastically increasing resources.

Why choose Fidelity Group as your unified communications provider
Here at Fidelity Group, we understand that communication is the lifeblood of any business or organisation. Whether you are customer-facing, industrial or governmental, it’s important to have the right infrastructure to support those lines of communication at every level.

We deliver unique, tailored solutions that are designed to nature your communications, improve operations and strengthen your business. We then bolster this with 24/7/365 dedicated technical support and customer service. We won’t have you on hold for hours trying to get hold of an agent, you will have a dedicated account manager who is supported by a full technical and engineering department. Our goal is to keep you connected and communicating always. Building relationships that last. Everything is handled under one roof, including energy.

Get in touch with our team today and see how we can implement unified communications across your workplace.

Why telecommunications will determine start-up success in 2021

Between April and July last year, the number of newly registered businesses in the UK jumped from 7,000 to a staggering 18,000 (source. Office for National Statistics). And now, according to the business support organisation Enterprise Nation, it looks as though we’re well on track to exceed those numbers moving into a post-COVID era.

We could delve into the myriad of reasons why — ranging from widespread redundancies to the obvious and pragmatic shifts in the way services are now being consumed. But the real question should be aimed squarely at what it is, precisely, that will determine their success.

Starting a new enterprise is difficult at the best of times. Building something from scratch in the wake of a global pandemic, on the other hand, will be fraught with a very different set of challenges.

Here we outline the key reasons a robust telecommunications strategy is crucial for start-up success in 2021.

Business-grade internet / fibre
With online sales increasing by over 46% (source. Office for National Statistics), it’s not hard to see why so many new businesses will be digital-only or have online as a key component of their business model.

In which case, business-grade internet (otherwise known as fibre) will be imperative for any organisation looking to keep pace with the rapidly changing landscape. Unlike consumer connections, business-grade internet isn’t restricted by data limits. So, if you’re exchanging large files all day long, or you need to handle peak-time traffic from network users, fibre will add serious speed to your operation.

On top of all that, a business-grade internet connection lays a robust foundation for supporting various resources/communications across your entire business infrastructure. This brings us to our next point…

Telephony / mobile
Depending on your internet speeds, there will be different telephony systems you could theoretically implement within your new business — but we’ll come back to those in a moment.

Plenty of customers are still picking up the phone to enquire about services and business information. In fact, a study conducted by Invoca revealed that 75% of customers believe that calling a business is the best way to get a quick response — calling it the “most effective form of customer support”.

With this in mind, it’s pretty clear that new start-ups can’t afford to neglect telephony for fear of cutting out a pretty significant chunk of new enquiries. On the other side of things, a robust telephony system can also strengthen communications across different business areas, unify teams and improve productivity.

Circling back to what we said earlier about there being different kinds of telephony systems available, it really comes down to whether a hosted, on-premises or hybrid solution best fits your needs and infrastructure. If you’re unsure, you can check out a recent article we wrote about the subject that will definitely resonate with new businesses in 2021.

Regardless, a robust telephony system should be at the core of your telecommunications strategy. Other advantages include:

Lower call costs
Multi-media messaging
Group calls / meetings
Hot-desking
Local area number no matter where you are located
Mobile integration

On the subject of mobile, you can even get a landline telephone number for your smartphone. This is particularly ideal for small businesses who are just starting out, who perhaps don’t want the hassle or expense of a landline installation but require a professional front-facing telephone number.

If you’re starting a new venture and thinking of renewing your mobile contract, check out the top business smartphones for 2021 here.

Cloud hosting
We’ve already touched on hosted telephony systems. But the benefits of cloud hosting, on the whole, are even more immense.

The combination of virtual servers and software as a service makes cloud hosting ideal for new small businesses to enhance their resources without taking up too much space or expense. It also gives new companies the flexibility to scale operations appropriately and cost-effectively as the business continues to evolve and grow.

Another huge benefit of cloud hosting is data security. Offsite cloud-based backup services mean that new businesses don’t have to worry about forgetting to backup essential data. It also ensures certain resources that aren’t hosted locally (including telephone systems) remain operational and accessible in the event of a local disruption (flood, fire, local power outage, etc.), and business continuity can resume. These aren’t things new businesses tend to think about, but it’s always good to prepare for any eventuality.

Why choose Fidelity Group if you’re a start-up in 2021
2021 is going to be a trying year for all businesses — not just for start-ups.

With that in mind, new enterprises looking to start strong should be thinking about their telecommunications — which, as we’ve outlined, extends far beyond simple telephone systems.

Here at Fidelity Group, we look at the bigger picture. We deliver unique, tailored solutions that combine to form an overarching strategy designed to enhance your capabilities, improve operations and strengthen your business. We then bolster this with 24/7/365 dedicated technical support and customer service, forging relationships with all our clients to help ensure success on their journey. Everything is handled under one roof, including energy.

Get in touch with the team today and see how we can help your new business thrive now and for the longer term.

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