Keep your number
Your existing numbers move across, so customers and suppliers dial the same digits as before.
Unified Comms & Telco
Digital Voice Line
The UK is retiring its old copper phone network. A digital voice line keeps the number and the handset call working, and gives you a plan for the alarm, lift phone and card terminal that were quietly relying on it too.
The switch-off is not optional
Openreach is retiring the old analogue and ISDN phone network. That is the PSTN switch-off, and it means a technology that has worked since the 1980s is being turned off. Existing lines will not simply keep working.
The part that catches businesses out is not the phones. It is everything else sharing a phone line: intruder alarms, lift emergency phones, fax machines, EPOS and card terminals, out-of-hours entry systems. Each one needs its own answer, and plenty of businesses only find that out when the line stops.
What a digital line gives you
Runs on broadband
The line sits on your internet connection, which usually means clearer calls than ageing copper managed.
Alarm and safety lines
Intruder, lift and emergency lines need a proper plan rather than a like-for-like swap, and we work through them one by one.
Card terminals
EPOS and PDQ terminals usually need a network or 4G connection instead of a phone line to keep taking payments.
Planned cutover
We move you before the switch-off forces the issue, on a date that suits your quiet period.
Continuity
Calls can divert to a mobile or another site if the connection fails, so you are never simply cut off.
The lines people forget to check
- Intruder alarm signalling — many older systems use a phone line to reach the monitoring centre
- Lift and fire alarm lines, which are covered by their own rules and need a compliant replacement
- EPOS and card payment terminals that dial the bank over the phone line
- Fax machines, including the one only three customers still use but nobody wants to say no to
- PDQ machines in a back office that were installed years ago and never revisited
- Till systems and clock-in terminals still connected to the wall
Questions we get asked about Digital Voice Line
What is the PSTN switch-off?
Openreach is retiring the analogue and ISDN telephone network that has carried UK landline calls for decades. Once it is switched off, traditional copper phone lines and the services riding on them stop working, so every business needs a digital alternative in place beforehand.
Will my existing number still work?
Yes. Your number moves to the digital service. Number portability means customers keep dialling the same number and you should not need to tell anyone it changed.
What happens to my alarm if I do nothing?
An alarm still signalling over a phone line stops reaching the monitoring centre once that line is retired. It may still arm and disarm normally, which is what makes it dangerous. The failure is silent. This needs checking, not assuming.
Do I need special equipment?
For ordinary calls, usually just a compatible handset or a softphone. The exceptions are specialist lines like alarms and card terminals, which may need a specific adapter or a different connection entirely. We will tell you which is which.
Can we do this now rather than later?
Yes, and it is better to. Moving on your terms, with time to test the alarm and the card terminal, beats being forced onto a rushed swap the week the line is cut off.
Not sure whether you need digital voice line?
Book a free 60-minute health check. We will tell you what you actually need, including when the answer is nothing.