Councils across England and Wales could see widespread disruption as PSTN is withdrawn – over half of councils in England and Wales have no strategy for the 2025 PSTN withdrawal

• 56% of councils responded that they have no strategy
• 70% of London boroughs questioned also have no strategy
• Services such as alarm lines, traffic light systems, payment terminals, payphone lines, medical devices and external connectivity to telephony systems could be impacted, cutting these organisations off from the outside world

London, UK, August 2022:

A Freedom of Information (FOI) request by Maintel, the cloud and managed services company, reveals that 23 of the 40 councils across England and Wales that responded (56%) have no strategy for the Wholesale Line Rental (WLR) withdrawal of Public Switch Telephone Network (PSTN) and Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) services.

Through the FOI, Maintel also found that 10 of the 14 London boroughs (70%) that responded to questioning have no strategy in place, while only four indicated they do.

Maintel states, if the switchover is not done in time, it could lead to widespread disruption of public services. Services such as alarm lines, traffic light systems, payment terminals, payphone lines, medical devices and external connectivity to telephony systems could all be impacted.

Dan Davies, Chief Technology Officer at Maintel, said: “Failure to plan for the WLR withdrawal deadline could have a huge impact on organisations, their users and their citizens. Without services such as alarms or lifts, which rely on PSTN lines, offices and hospitals will not meet safety standards and will be forced to close. Telephony systems that connect to the outside world via ISDN could also be cut-off, potentially impacting critical services.”

The clock is ticking – while BT will switch off the PSTN and ISDN in 2025, all WLR products will be removed from sale by September 2023. Organisations using ISDN, PSTN or DSL broadband services will need to migrate them to new digital alternatives.

Organisations will also need to be mindful of current supply chain issues for networking technology that can currently be in excess of 12 months, along with the challenges of installing new technologies across their historic buildings. They need to account for this in their FY 2023 budgets to ensure that any technology upgrades needed can be ordered to be delivered and installed in time for 2025. They therefore need to start comprehensive audits of their estates in preparation for identifying any affected services.

Of the councils that do not have a strategy in place, most have no goal date for completion in mind. However, those who do, say they are expecting completion by 2025, when traditional copper phone line services will be withdrawn.

New services will be almost exclusively fully fibre based and completely digital. This means they are highly resilient and integrate seamlessly with other next generation services.

Dan Davies continues: “Migrating ahead of the WLR withdrawal has the potential to be a huge undertaking for organisations. Decision makers should not wait until 2025, as exchanges are being phased out now. A rapid audit of your network is recommended to understand how many connections you have, of what type and what they are being used for. Leaving it to the last minute, could result in increased installation costs and delays.

“Depending on the nature of your organisation, these could be anything from simple voice lines to DSL broadband, building alarm circuits or even all external connectivity to the telephony system in use. Whatever existing WLR ISDN/PSTN services you have, there are a number of easy migration paths to ensure the normal running of the organisation is uninterrupted.

“The past two years have delivered huge uncertainty, but the 2025 deadline for the PSTN and ISDN switch off is one thing that’s for certain. Councils must act now to ensure services can continue to function.”