I have just returned from a very relaxing break in the Greek Islands where my wife and I spent many hours sipping coffee and wine by the pretty fishing harbour. This is a great time to reflect on life and make plans for the future. However, we were very distracted by “people watching” and most of all, the British holiday maker. Why do men wear socks with sandals? This started a whole conversation about things that just don’t go together which was quite amusing until I said FTTC and ISDN. “What are you talking about” was the confused response! Let me explain….
There are two main areas of telecoms for consideration for most business customers; internet access for data and email and then lines for telephone calls. Most small business customers will have a Broadband of some type for internet access. For those businesses that have a telephone system it will most likely be connected to either ISDN2e or ISDN30e channels (digital lines). All fairly standard stuff; however the ever increasing rollout of superfast fibre Broadband (FTTC) is enabling businesses to look at far more cost effective solutions.
You don’t necessarily have to have FTTC to support VoIP calls; however if you do then you should have no fear of ditching your ISDN lines in favour of either a hosted solution or SIP. In basic terms; hosted means that you don’t need to buy a telephone system as this sits in the cloud and you just buy handsets and rent licenses. SIP means that you still need a telephone system however then rent how many simultaneous calls you need across your Broadband without needing extra lines. So what are the advantages? Reduce your rental – Cost per line on an ISDN2e can be anything between £11 and £21 per month depending on your supplier. SIP trunks can start as low as £6 per month. Hosted service are generally charged on a per user basis and therefore not restricted on number of simultaneous calls.
Reduced installation charges – you only need to connect a single line. ISDN services can be expensive to install unless you commit to long term contracts. Why sign a five year contract for old technology? Reduced call charges – calls using VoIP still have to breakout into the main public switched network so call prices are often very similar. However there are some very good inclusive tariffs which provide unlimited calls to UK landlines and sometimes to UK Mobiles. Inter-site traffic is usually free of charge.
Keep your number – telephone numbers delivered via SIP or a hosted platform can be delivered anywhere so you don’t have to change number if you move from one exchange to another. Disaster recovery – if you have ISDN then your only option is to divert all numbers including direct dial to a single destination. Hosted and SIP allows simple divert of calls to multiple destinations together with advanced call routing such as messages. Direct dial numbers can be dealt with individually.
There are some considerations when looking at a VoIP solution, especially if you have a slow Broadband connection. Notwithstanding this, a VoIP call needs less than 100 Kbps (upload is important). FTTC delivers both fast upload and download speeds. Broadband is not provided with a robust service level agreement which is also a concern; however if you can get FTTC then you can possibly get EoFTTC (Ethernet over FTTC) which has a guaranteed speed with a service level agreement similar to a leased line however at a proportion of the cost.
So in summary, if you can get FTTC then I don’t think you need ISDN, although I have been banned from discussing on holiday. As for socks and sandals feedback welcome!
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