ISDN is ending and businesses around Australia are turning to Cloud PBX. Enough acronyms for you? SmileTel is here to make sense of it all for you (hint: it’s all about phones!)
What is ISDN?
ISDN stands for Integrated Services Digital Network. It’s a network of copper cables that has been used to deliver voice calls between Australian businesses for the last 20 years. It improved on dial-up internet and became known as the ‘original digital internet’, used for voice calls and data transfers.
What’s Happening to ISDN?
The technology is now approaching ‘end of life’. It’s had a good run, but it’s time for the next generation of communications to step up. The cables will start being ripped up in September 2019, new ISDN products stopped going on sale in June 2018, and the entire network will be decommissioned in 2022.
What’s Replacing ISDN?
The dated copper lines of ISDN are being replaced by the super-fast and efficient fibre cables of the NBN. All your communications, including voice, will be delivered via this fibre network. Phone systems like Cloud PBX utilise this network to bring a cloud-based telephony system to your business that exceeds anything ISDN was able to provide.
What is Cloud PBX?
Let’s dial back a little while to what an actual PBX system is. This is a hardware setup residing on your business premises that routes your calls between different extensions. Think a big box with billions of cables (weeelll, lots of cables.) Cloud PBX serves the same function, but the entire system is based in the cloud. So there’s no hardware on site, except the phones themselves which are pre-programmed with all the required info.
Benefits of Cloud PBX
There’s a lot of pluses to this technology, and it’s no wonder Australian businesses are adopting it in a big way. Here’s a few:
– Cost saving: Less hardware means less installation costs and lower maintenance costs over time. There’s also no line rental, lower call costs domestically and overseas, and free calling within offices. Kaching.
– Easy setup: A Cloud PBX provider like SmileTel will set your system up in no time at all, and with little input from you other than providing a few details.
– Reliability and backups: The system lives in the cloud, so it’s been designed with redundancy in mind. Any problems and it can be switched over to a new location. Also, if your office is somehow damaged, your company is protected because the PBX system is sitting high and dry in the cloud.
– Easily scalable: When your business expands, it’s really easy for your phone system to expand with it. The system itself is constantly upgraded with new functions and capabilities at no cost to your business.
What Does This Mean for My Business?
If you’re using ISDN for your phone system, now’s the time to start thinking about upgrading to a Cloud PBX system. By doing it sooner rather than later, you’ll start enjoying greater flexibility, lower costs, more productivity and a more safe and secure phone system than ever before.
Need any advice on how to move forward with the change? SmileTel is here to help! Just give us a call and we’ll answer any questions you might have.
When he’s not writing tech articles or turning IT startups into established and consistent managed service providers, Peter Drummond can be found kitesurfing on the Gold Coast or hanging out with his family!