All over Europe, legacy analogue telephone networks are being phased out. The UK will switch its PSTN and ISDN systems off in 2025 – and that will be a huge change. Old cellular networks are also being turned off. According to Cullen International’s latest European benchmark, MNOs in 22 countries have completed or have plans to switch off their legacy 2G or 3G networks.
For the communications systems and devices that depend on analogue networks, this is a big challenge. It could mean ripping and replacing old systems involving thousands of existing user devices. That process needs to start right away. It takes time to test and implement new products and systems, and it’s expensive. Many of the communications services that still depend on analogue networks are for alarms and security systems. They can’t afford to fail.
Is the switch-off a compelling event for a move?
A lot of investment has been made in these devices and communication systems. Even though they rely on an ageing analogue network, they are not broken and continue to function well. However, they are getting costly to run and maintain and offer limited scalability. In addition, the people who designed and built them may have moved on by now. Finding anyone who knows how to manage and maintain them will become increasingly difficult.
Even so, there are plenty of good reasons to update current systems. A modern, all-IP and cloud-based approach will bring greater cost efficiency, improved reliability, enhanced security, elastic scaling and a shorter time to market.
The PSTN switch-off might be the compelling event that will finally drive businesses with systems and devices that run on analogue networks to make the change.
Avoiding the need to start over
“Shutting down the analogue networks is a natural step when you already have faster and more reliable digital networks. But it brings challenges for those providing communication services based on these networks”, said Gunnar Reinholdsen, Co-Founder iotcomms.io (IOT Communications).
“Digital technologies use a different type of signalling, something which impacts the communication heavily.”
Alarm services for care homes, elevators, intercom systems, and the security sector are just a few examples where the switch-off must be addressed – and the businesses that are affected need to act before the old networks are turned off.
