Prepare For PSTN Switch Off

In the beginning. A quick recap.

When looking at how the UK is connected it is surprising that to this day public switched telephone networks (PSTN) is still used for home and business connection which has been in place since the 19th century. For context this is practically the same method used by Alexander Bell who made the first ever phone call in 1878!

The first instance of PSTN is the copper network in the late 1800s. As time progressed so did the world and its needs, thus implementing a new standard of connection the PSTN which was held at high regards of having a 99.999% uptime.

Nowadays improvements have been made with Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) along with Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTL) which allow us to access the internet and do more than just make phone calls, yet these methods still run off the PSTN network.

ASDL made massive strides when first released replacing the iconic Dial Up in the early 2000s allowing people to use the internet without it cutting out if you received a call.

Installations were also cheap which gave around 99% of the UK population access to ADSL services allowing nearly everyone to have access to the network.

This is one of the biggest reasons that wired connections have become the norm. Practically all the infrastructure has been built for wired-connections. So much of the foundations from tunnels underground to masts aboveground, it is much easier to utilise what is already in place than to leave it in the past and start anew. 

The present and future.

British Telecoms (BT) announced that the PSTN / ISDN network was going to be shutdown in 2025 and new orders would be stopped by 2023. This decision came to a surprise due to the millions of people that still use that network and depend on it for their internet and telephony requirements.

BT have offered alternative options for people that don’t have access to full fibre such as SOTAP, but testing will only have started this year.

Even with these workarounds it’ll only be able to simulate the quality of existing ADSL and FTTC products, which begs the question of why bother shutting down PSTN? 

Well the simple answer is that BT wants to focus on their Fibre First strategy which will make fibre more widely available across the country however, the road to this strategy is going to be bumpy and have its potential issues.

BTs focus on fibre is not surprising due to the ADSL download (8Mbps) and upload speed (832Kbps) no longer able to cope with the arrival of high-fidelity media and cloud computing in the last decade. Most people now need upload speeds that match their downloads.

Companies and home users now have to ask themselves;

Is connecting using fixed-line options viable going forward?

It may have taken its time but the range of services that need connectivity has surpassed the viability of PSTN, even more now that the Internet of Things (IoT) has taken centre stage like it has. Connecting to more than just your computer and phone but to almost any electronic appliance that you have. I can browse the internet from my fridge now.

As the world adapts to the new normal, businesses are looking for new innovative IoT and connectivity solutions to stay in the market.

We are getting to a point where ADSL and FTTL are no longer going to be able to support all the features that the future holds let alone now. Installations are slow and outages are high along with expensive contracts.

Fibre-to-the-Premises solved some of these problems but there are so many loopholes you’ll have to jump through to have the opportunity of it being offered, let alone a deep wallet.

What is the answer to all these problems?

Go mobile!

Not quite do everything from your phone but not far off. Use the way that it connects.

Strides in 4G data plans and coverage have made them an extremely efficient and viable way of connecting to the internet. Specifically you use a multi network SIM which swap networks if there is ever an outage. This allows you to cover every location that you require the internet.

Another perk of going mobile would be the plans that are offered behind the SIM. Many of these plans can be swapped in and out giving you a completely flexible and cheaper environment. This means that your plan can be scaled to the size of your business giving you the freedom of moving away from fixed 12-month contracts that don’t specifically give you what you need.

This is not to mention that new fibre products are looking to be much more expensive than their line-rental counterparts this gives businesses an answer to not paying massive sums for fibre connectivity.

Mobile broadband can be used even for the largest of companies that eat through data using line bonding hardware joining up to 7 SIM cards together giving a throughput of 5Gbps.

Determined to continue using fixed-lined for connection? Well mobile broadband options are still useful as backups to the main system. Able to kick in seamlessly if the fixed line goes down it is able to keep your business going.

Comparing 

4G in recent years has progressed so much that the average download speed is 20Mpbs with an upload of 10Mbps topping ADSL and ADSL2 in every way. Their latency is similar however, if there is any latency with the ADSL service such as peak usage hours then packets are queued on the network.

Fixed line in general compared to any single mobile network will come out on top, but it’s an entirely different ball game when you have access to every mobile network in one intelligent SIM. A 4G multi-network SIM will lock onto the strongest signal strength and seamlessly connect to it. This is also how the network stays active even if one line goes down, it switches to the next best no matter where you are. Completely protected against damages and maintenance.

In conclusion

With the normal being replaced perhaps it is time to change the way that we all connect. Developments in the mobile broadband sector have potentially surpassed the common perception of the public, allowing businesses to grow and progress further for cheaper.

The integration of 4G (and upcoming 5G) broadband connection into home and business can be the evolutionary next step on how the country connects. But the question that still needs to be asked is, will 4G/5G become eventually become obsolete and replaced with better technology? 

The simple answer is yes.

Technology has an inevitable path of becoming better and needing bigger requirements out-dating previous versions of tech. We may have gone up a few steps but are far from the landing.