Riding the Crest of the Wave Part 3 and the Big Copper Switch-off Approaches

CREATED BY PRITESH GANATRA Published: 13/05/2025 @ 09:00AM #Blackberry #RiseAndFall #SecureEmail #HandsetMarket #2023Documentary

And all of a sudden, we had Blackberry dominating the Global market. Watch the 2023 documentary of the Rise and Fall of one of the most secure email systems in the world, which is no longer with us in the handset market ...

I have been fortunate to have ridden the crest of the wave and I am still in the industry!

Yet, whilst I write this latest blog post, Blackberry Limited (formerly Research in Motion), now a software company, has posted profits, backed by a resilient demand for cybersecurity services amid rising online threats.

In this final instalment of my fantastic career in Technology
I am going to go backwards from here!

Firstly, we are at the present date of May 2025, and you now have less than a year to decide how you are going to replace your old 3Com, Avaya, Ericsson, LG / LG-Ericsson. Mitel, NEC, Phillips, Samsung or Toshiba phone systems that work on ISDN2e / ISDN30e.

This is because in December 2025, Openreach is decommissioning all equipment in BT Exchanges that generate a dial tone, known as the PSTN and ISDN networks. They cannot discontinue/decommission the physical copper cable in the ground as we still have SoGEA (fibre-copper hybrid-based broadband that does NOT require a dial tone).

BTS (UK) have been supplying this version of
FTTC since 2019.

So, as we venture even further into the murk of the virtual world, we need to ensure our voice is clear and on par with the current copper-based public voice networks. How do we achieve this I hear you ask?

The first and most essential step is to ensure you have 'business-grade' broadband. I won't bore you to death in this blog post about the technicalities and complexities of Internet Service Providers (ISPs), and that not all broadband is the same quality. Just make sure you have a solid, business-grade ISP with a static IP (I will cover this in a future blog post).

Secondly, modify some of your email systems and use advanced off-site filtering to limit the volume of false emails you get (again, I will cover this in a future blog post). You may be thinking right now, what on earth is Pritesh talking about? In layman's terms, it's to ensure your connection is the best possible quality, stays 'clean', and that your bandwidth usage is never compromised.

Thirdly, a decent firewall both on-site and at the hosted telephony provider's end. And there is the defining words: "the hosted telephony provider". The questions to ask are:

• Where are the servers that house that telephony software?
• How many fully qualified and trained engineers are there in the UK for the VoIP system you are thinking of purchasing in place of your solid ISDN-backed Mitel, Avaya, (Siemens) HiPath, Nortel, ShoreTel, Toshiba, Philips, Panasonic or Samsung systems?
• What resilience does the Hosted Telephony provider offer in terms of multi-point routing, and do they have their own diverse routed internet connections to ensure your call is always 'on', even if one of their connections drops?

That's it for this blog post! There will be quite a number of continuations for this topic. There's a lot more to it than meets the eye.

Until next time ...

PRITESH GANATRA
Your technology problem solver

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About Pritesh Ganatra ...
The word 'Technology' has too many connotations in today's world! Where do we start? Simple terms like 'IT' and 'Telecoms'? or terms that appear NOT to have an actual meaning at all!, e.g. 'Internet of Things (IoT). Technology also encompasses specialist products and services like 'Rugged' and 'Tough' android devices, Lone Worker Software, panic alarm devices, smart energy devices, low energy lighting, credit card terminal (PCI DSS) security, indoor/ outdoor Wi-Fi systems, Ultrafast Gigabit internet connectivity, access control systems, industrial IoT circuit controllers. BTS UK can consult from simple solutions to the most complex, provide some of the products through a wholesale channel, bring together a multi-disciplined 'Task Force' to deliver and implement complete Technology 'projects'. I am your technology problem solver and I look forward to helping you.

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