ISP iDNET to Migrate Entire UK Phone Network to All-IP with BT
UK broadband ISP iDNET has today announced that they’ve signed a 5-year deal with BTWholesale to help migrate their entire “phone network” to an all-IP solution in advance of the 2025 digital switch-over (when old analogue phones services are due to be withdrawn).
Openreach (BT) currently expects to withdraw the traditional analogue Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) by the end of December 2025. At the same time ISPs are similarly expected to replace this with new digital, internet based (all IP) services by the same date.
Like many ISPs, iDNET already has an existing relationship with BTW for broadband (c.5,000 connections) and other services. As part of their newly expanded partnership, the ISP now intends to transfer 4,000 lines to BTW’s Hosted Communications (WHC) service – offering their customers a comprehensive cloud-based Unified Communications (UC) solution to enhance remote and mobile working.
The UC solution covers voice calling (VoIP etc.), instant messaging, audio conferencing, call analytics and advanced call control tools.
Steve Waters, Head of Business Development at IDNet, said:
“We knew that we had to get ahead of the game and be ready for the switchover. Having worked with BT Wholesale previously, we knew the services and solutions offered would be best-suited for our products and customers. By acting quickly with BT Wholesale, we can ensure we stay one step ahead and prevent any base erosion to our business whilst providing new digital solutions.”
Gavin Jones, BT Wholesale Channel Sales Director, said:
“This is an important signal to the industry that established and forward-focussed communication providers like IDNet are selecting BT Wholesale to migrate their analogue telephone lines ahead of the closure of the current analogue PSTN network in 2025.”
There is still some way to go before the nation is fully ready for the switch-off and the transition to all-IP, but capabilities like BT’s WHC service will enable our Channel partners to deliver a key IP solution to their customers to support their digital transformation journeys. We’re excited to extend our partnership with IDNet and look forward to working together to future-proof businesses with the best digital connectivity solutions.”
End.
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook and Linkedin.
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Is there a solution for powercuts and people who have no interest like elderly and those who don’t wish to have internet access? Is it degraded if you have slow internet?
Powercuts Yes, back up power supplies can be purchased and supplied for vulnerable people. It isn’t as easy or as transparent a solution when adding a backup power supply to what we have now with a traditional landline as it needs extra kit and maintenance (the batteries don’t last for ever).
There is a product available for people who do not want internet access, it basically is the same thing just capped at a very slow speed, fast enough for voice calls, but far too slow to much else.
Quality isn’t degraded for voice calls as the data rate required is extremely low, just 64Kbps is the usual data rate for the best quality VoIP calls.
@Phil A-law PCM using RTP with signalling and packet overhead needs 100kbps, but it’s a trivial speed to deliver in most cases.
The driver for a move to IP voice and our plans to accommodate this fundamental change is being dictated by Openreach which will retire the majority of voice on copper by 2025. All UK CPs must plan for this sooner rather than later. IDNet will still maintain a voice on copper service as long as we are permitted to do so but in parallel with this we need to plan for the transition to IP voice when OR decide to pull the plug. We believe that in certain circumstances OR may need to cater for some voice on copper – currently we are uncertain as to how this will be defined or implemented by them.
This does raise a number of important questions. With regard to power cuts without the benefit of UPS facilities then outbound voice will be disrupted but our VoIP service will permit failover of inbound calls to an alternative destination. Powercuts will affect anyone currently using any VoIP services for telephony. OR are looking to cater for non-internet users who just need voice connectivity with a low bandwidth/low usage connectivity solution – further information regarding their plans can be sought from OR. Admittedly there will be challenges to this retirement programme which is UK wide.
Standard CODEC VoIP calls should use some 50k of bandwidth during a live call so this may be impacted or may have an impact on a low bandwidth connection such as can be found on some ADSL connections
Times change hope idnet stay bloody good as they are now 😉 then i wont need to leave!
Times change hope idnet stay bloody good as they are now 😉 then i wont need to leave!