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Hosted Telephony: Future-Proof, Cost-Effective and Scalable

February 3, 2020 - by Jack Mitchell

Have you seen the news? BT has announced that it is switching off ISDN and PSTN by 2025. If you’re using a traditional telephone system that isn’t using IP services, your system will be obsolete in a few years.

Over the next 5 years, all businesses – including yours – will have to use internet protocol services to host their telephony.

Changing your telephone system is a big deal, so we’ve created this blog post to explain hosted telephony. This guide will explain what hosted telephony is, why it’s helpful to host your telephone system in the cloud, and how you can move over to a hosted system sooner rather than later.

What is hosted telephony? Hosted telephony is a unified communications solution that doesn’t require any hardware in your building. A hosted telephone system is in the cloud instead, with calls carried over the internet.

Now we’ve looked at the jargon answer, we will look at what hosted telephony is in more detail.

When you have a hosted telephone system, your service provider hosts and manages your system in the cloud. When you are making calls, they are transmitted over the internet. They can be delivered from one location to another using a broadband connection.

Hosted telephony is also known by a range of other names, some of which you’ve probably heard of. Some popular terms are:

All these terms have the same meaning, with some slight differences in application in an office.

ISDN / PSTN Switch Off: What It Means for Your Business

Hosted telephony will replace ISDN and PSTN, which will be switched off by 2025. What does this mean for your business, you might ask?

The telephone network is a copper wire-based system that has been used in some form for decades. The network of copper wire phone lines that carries analogue voice data is known as PSTN. PSTN stands for Public Switched Telephone Network.

In the 80s, the integrated services digital network (ISDN) was launched. ISDN provided a method for transmitting both voice and data over the same copper infrastructure. With ISDN, the internet could be accessed on the copper infrastructure, which was revolutionary at a time.

To answer the question of what the switch off means for your business, if you have a PBX that uses either PSTN or ISDN, you will have to replace it. Fortunately, PBX hardware isn’t needed with cloud telephony. All you need for a cloud telephone system is an internet connection.

Why BT Is Switching Off the Old Infrastructure

Technology is always progressing, and ISDN and PSTN are no longer good solutions by modern standards. Research conducted by Smith and Williamson shows that over three quarters of small businesses are looking into cloud solutions to improve the efficiency of their company. Many small businesses are using cost-effective cloud solutions in several areas of their business, so it’s no surprise that they’re moving onto hosted telephone systems too.

BT knows that cloud solutions are the future, so they’re switching off the old infrastructure to enable a greater focus on its modern, future-proof fibre network.

How Hosted Telephony Benefits Your Business

Every business should move over to hosted telephony as soon as possible. These benefits apply to any business, including yours.

Affordable

We’re starting off with one of the most obvious but crucially important benefits of hosted telephony: it’s affordable for businesses of all sizes. A cloud telephone system is software rather than hardware, meaning no big upfront costs.

Users pay for a cloud-based telephone system on a licence-per-licence basis. You pay monthly for the number of people using a phone, so there’s no massive upfront cost and you only pay for what you need.

No Maintenance or Upgrades

A cloud-hosted system won’t require regular maintenance or hardware upgrades every couple of years, because all maintenance and updates are completed in the cloud.

Your VoIP system provider will manage your system and make enhancements as part of your monthly fee. You’ll always have the latest version of your telephone system without having to invest in new software or hardware.

Scalable

When you choose hosted telephony, you will have a phone system that scales with your business. Traditionally, each new member of staff would require a connection to the PBX, which would cause third-party involvement.

With hosted telephony, you can add more telephone numbers easily and quickly. No waiting around for an engineer to come and install a phone for you. You can activate a VoIP licence in a few hours and have your new staff up and running.

No More Downtime

If you have a traditional telephone system and there is any kind of malfunction, it can stop your whole system from working. Phones are a business essential, so downtime can have a massive impact on your business.

If you’re using a cloud-based telephone system with virtual numbers, all calls can be diverted to several other devices in mere minutes. If you were without your desk handset, you can direct all calls to your mobile device instantly. Even people with no background in telecommunications can set up a phone number divert instantly, reducing the impact of any phone-related problems on your business.

Enables Remote Working

Know that you will be out of the office for a day or two? Divert all calls to your virtual number to your mobile device. This isn’t possible with a traditional phone system but cloud-based telephone systems offer far greater flexibility.

More people than ever are working remotely. Whether or not you’re working in the office, you can direct all calls to your number and answer them no matter where you are, even if you don’t have an internet connection.

Wide Range of Call Management Features

Hosted telephone systems offer several call management features that enable increased productivity. For example, you can set up call diverts in mere seconds, or add a customised message that customers hear when they are on hold. Here are some other examples of the call management features available:

  • Call Forwarding
  • Call Notify by Email
  • Call Queue Groups
  • Call Recording
  • Call Transfer
  • Hunt Groups
  • Schedules

How Much Does Cloud Telephony Cost?

Now you know all you need to know about cloud telephony, you might wonder how much a VoIP system will cost your business.

A cloud-based telephone system is much cheaper than a traditional system, both upfront and in the long run. A cloud-based solution is perfect for businesses of all sizes, particularly when you only pay for what you need. There’s no need to buy expensive hardware; you simply buy licences when you need them.

Multiple factors can impact the price of a VoIP system. If you want a better idea of how much a VoIP system would cost your business, contact us today. We’d be delighted to explain VoIP and cloud-based solutions in more detail. Book your free, no-obligation consultation by filling in the form below. We’ll be in touch to arrange a convenient time for your consultation once we receive your request.