Home entertainment may be the main stimulus for gigabit expansion, two broadband experts have said.

Lincoln Lavoie, senior engineer at the University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory, predicted that the internet of things will play a major role in the growth of ultrafast broadband.

Speaking to Cable.co.uk at the Broadband World Forum event in Amsterdam, Mr Lavoie told us: “We’re just now starting to see what’s in the home evolving even more.

“More advanced video services, smart televisions, home automation systems, home surveillance systems, video monitoring. All of these new technologies that are evolving in the home are driving this new (gigabit) ecosystem.”

Chief executive of the Broadband World Forum Robin Mersh agreed, noting that the UK in particular had reached a “landmark” in broadband demand.

He said: “You look at certain countries that have very high bandwidth usage, like the UK, it’s all been driven by iPlayer. The iPlayer usage has just gone through the roof.

“You look at that kind of market and you need to upgrade them. That’s where we’re at. People don’t just need basic service, they’re looking for that upgrade.”

However, Mr Mersh acknowledged, what’s equally important for consumers is how accessible and easy to use the technology is and how much it costs. He added: “I think for consumers the really important thing is as long as you a hitting the right price point, it’s easy to install, you’re not going to inconvenience them, and they’re getting the bandwidth they want.

“If you can do all those things you don’t need to explain anything to them. They just go ‘great’.

“Think about what are the operators trying to do. The operators are trying to reach as many of their subscribers at a high enough bandwidth to deliver the services that are expected.

So you’ve got most consumers looking for as high speeds as they think they need – and that’s a bit of a debatable point – they want multiple devices doing high speed internet, they want to stream probably on every single one of them, they want a couple of different TVs, probably being in high definition.

“And so from their point of view consumers don’t care what that access method is, and to be honest most of the operators only really care In the sense that they want to deliver the services that consumers want. But they want to do it as cost effectively as they can.”

Earlier this year BT announced their intention to switch off the PSTN and ISDN networks by 2025. Customers will be migrated to a single IP core network that ultimately will replace all legacy networks and platforms.

PSTN and ISDN: What’s the difference?

PSTN stands for Public Switched Telephone Network, also referred to as the Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS). Analogue voice data flows over circuit-switched phone lines (copper wires) owned and operated by your phone provider.

ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) allows both voice and data services over digital lines, for example video conferencing, data transfer and direct-dial in. ISDN digital services provide multiple channels per line, enabling simultaneous phone calls.

The alternative – VoIP

Instead of using PSTN & ISDN lines (the expensive ‘line rental’ part of your telecom bill) ‘Voice over IP’ transmits voice traffic over your Internet connection. Already many businesses are using VoIP or voice services, not least because it’s a cost effective way to manage telephony within an organisation: this has contributed to the steady decline in take up for PSTN / ISDN services.

For many BT business customers this move by the company will force them to explore new telephony systems, with the added benefit of a more cost effective solution.

So, if your business currently relies on one of the 3.2 million ISDN channels in the UK*, what do you need to know about the ‘big’ switch off?

What to do now

If your current traditional telephony contract is up for renewal in the next few years, now is the time to start exploring the benefits and opportunities of VoIP technology. These include:

Cost savings – no line rental, cheaper calls including International calls, and free calls between your organisation’s offices

Mobility – remote workers can login to your VoIP from anywhere using an Internet connection, even on their mobiles

Multi-functional – as well as voice calls, VoIP can also be used for video-conferencing using a VoIP phone

Integration – because VoIP technology uses the Internet it is possible to integrate it with your other business systems, such as email clients or customer records

Scalability – VoIP technology scales easily to your business. New phone lines can simply be added, reassigned or removed depending on your business’ needs

You’ll also need to ensure that your office Internet can handle VoIP. You will need a baseline of 5Mbps down and 2Mbps up as the bare minimum for a small office of about five to seven users on VoIP.

Phone systems and handsets also need to support VoIP, having identified a provider you will be able to find out if they are compatible or not. If not, you can either upgrade to an IP-enabled on-premise PBX or replace your phone system with a hosted telephony offering.

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.

Dates for your diary

2020: Five years before PSTN and ISDN lines will be switched off; businesses will no longer be able to buy any systems that use these networks. Although 2025 may seem a long way off, 2020 is only four years away so if you plan to refresh or upgrade telephony systems within your organisation in the next few years, you should be looking at a VoIP solution instead of upgrading your traditional PSTN or ISDN system.

2025: BT plan to have migrated all existing customers to their IP network. This presents an excellent opportunity for businesses to explore VoIP technology prior to the switch off and find a competitive provider.

* BT own a significant proportion of UK ISDN channels.

Now, more than ever, businesses are recognizing the benefits of VoIP systems. A cloud-based phone system can do wonders for productivity and customer service levels for all businesses, from small startups to much bigger companies.

This article explores 6 reasons why your business should invest in a VoIP phone system and discusses how cloud-based solutions can contribute to your company’s continued success.

1. It’s a cost-effective alternative to your current system

Compared to a traditional on-site phone system, a VoIP business phone system is a cost-effective alternative. You’re responsible for a monthly cost per user and for the calling minutes you use on your system. VoIP business phone systems are hosted in the cloud, so there is no need to purchase expensive on-site equipment except for your handsets.

2. You aren’t responsible for the system’s maintenance

Because all the technology used in this type of system is hosted in the cloud and managed by your us, you won’t be responsible for any maintenance. This saves you time and money and also ensures your system is always running at optimal levels. We are also in charge of system upgrades, which means you’ll always have the most up-to-date technology available.

3. Easily scale your business up and down

One of the biggest benefits of VoIP business phone systems is the ability to easily scale up and down for an increased or decreased workforce. This allows you to hire the employees you need during a busy season and still easily manage your system when you have a smaller workforce.

4. Take advantage of must-have calling features

VoIP phone systems come with a variety of built-in features that can help you run your business more efficiently. Features like call recording and time of day routing can help you better manage both employees and customers. You can easily listen to calls taking place inside your business with live call monitoring, or ensure your customers are reaching an available staff member with advanced call routing features.

5. Access your phone system anywhere

Everyone enjoys flexibility, especially when it comes to business. A VoIP business phone system is accessible over the Internet, so the only thing you need to make a call or manage your system is a reliable Internet connection. This allows you to work on the road and keep an eye on your remote employees, no matter where you (or they) may be located.

6. Customize your phone system

With an on-site phone system, integrating your system with other programs or adding features requires on-site maintenance. With a VoIP phone system, this is all done on the Internet, making it easier than ever to expand your system and increase its functionality.

A VoIP business phone system is a smart choice for any business in this day and age. It’s a cost-effective and flexible solution that will continue to grow and change with as new technology emerges. The benefits you’ll experience from this kind of phone system will catapult your business to success with not only a lower price tag, but increased customer and employee satisfaction levels

Before you or anyone on your team goes abroad, please make sure to call your account manager on 03456 200 200 to check you have the correct bolt-on in place. Once you have the correct bolt-on in place, managing your data abroad will be a lot easier. We’ve also got 3 tips on how to disable data hungry activities that go on in the background without you knowing.

1. Turn off auto-app updates

On most smartphones, apps can update in the background without your knowledge. This is handy when your apps are up to date whenever you check them, but this background activity could be eating into your data allowance without you realising, so it is best to disable.

2. Switch off email and app push notification

Does your phone alert you instantly when you have new mail? Do you get a notification when there’s breaking news on BBC News? That all requires data usage. Switching off email and app push notifications will help you reserve the data for the tasks that you actually need it for.

3. Disable video auto-play

When you’ve been scrolling through your news feed in the Facebook app, you might’ve noticed videos auto-playing. It looks great, but auto-play can be problematic if you only have a small data inclusion or you’re worried about your usage.

Switching off auto-play is a pretty effective way to cut back on your data usage, and might even save a bit of battery power as well.

To do this – open the facebook app > tap your phone’s menu button > tap settings > scroll down to video auto-play and choose an option

We hope you find these tips to keep data usage under control when roaming useful.

For those of you who can remember that far back, 1986 saw the introduction of ISDN, BT’s digital telephony network. I was 2 years old so wasn’t incredibly excited by it all, but back then it was seen as the ‘next big thing’ enabling businesses to have multiple lines and numbers all handled by their shiny new digital phone system. ISDN was also the delivery method for BT’s ‘Home Highway’ service launched back in 1997 which doubled standard dial-up to a whopping 128Kb speeds. Things have moved on somewhat since then and with Ethernet and 80Mb Superfast services now readily available – at 600 times faster than ‘Home Highway’ – BT have announced plans to turn off their ISDN network in 2025, meaning any business with ISDN lines will now need to consider the alternatives and prepare their business for the turn-off.

So what’s the urgency?

Although the switch off isn’t imminent and the announcement has not been made with the aim of panicking people into losing their lines, but more to encourage the exploration of the alternatives.

The switch-off has been enabled by massive investment in the rollout of improved connectivity right across the country and with the ability to move their Fixedline services to IP-based solutions, ISDN is now old-hat. Its worth noting that Openreach haven’t installed a single ISDN line in central London since 2014. The rollout of Superfast fibre, the development of new Ethernet products and the recent £3,000 Broadband Voucher scheme has meant Superfast Ethernet services are now financially accessible to SME businesses which in turn has opened up the opportunity for them to consider the ISDN alternatives. With over 3m active ISDN lines, Openreach are also looking to avoid a ‘last minute rush’ to move across to other the solutions which is why they have made this latest announcement.

What are the alternatives, and what’s so good about them?

In much the same way the television Digital Switchover from 2007-2012 upgraded us from the 5 channels of analogue TV to the better picture and hundreds of channels available on digital TV, the switch from ISDN to IP-based telephony brings huge benefits.

The direct replacement for ISDN is a service called SIP – session initiation protocol. Although the full name of SIP gives no real clues as to what it is or what it does, SIP essentially gives you a phone line carried into your premises over your internet connection, removing the need for a physical ISDN line.

The biggest barrier to SIP adoption in the past has been the unreliability of broadband. With the introduction of guaranteed Service Level Agreement products modern connectivity solutions are now more reliable and robust than the existing ISDN services and with SIP costing up to 78% less than ISDN exploring the alternatives to SIP has never made as much sense as it does today.

The second alternative to ISDN is cloud-based VoIP solutions which essentially move your entire telephony solution into the cloud benefitting from a huge range of services such as call recording, remote access voicemail, call queuing, and unification of multiple sites onto a simple platform at a fraction of the cost of an on-site system.

The key benefits of SIP and VoIP solutions are:

1. Fast implementation – no more waiting weeks or months for Openreach to install physical lines as calls are carried over a broadband connection
2. Geographical freedom – move site quickly and easily without losing your number, wherever you decide to move
3. Higher resiliency – as calls are carried over the internet and not tied to the physical line multiple broadband lines can be installed to provide automatic failover and redundancy into your premises
4. Disaster recovery – numbers can be set to divert automatically to another office or mobile in seconds should your existing office experience fire, flood, theft or power outages
5. Cost saving – up to 78% reduction on the cost of ISDN

To hear how SIP and VoIP can benefit your business please get in touch with the team here at 9dots and we can pop out and run through the new technologies and what it means for your business.

Written by Martin Kershaw 22/01/2016