Category: VOIP

ISDN Switch Off: The Deadline Is Now January 2027

Posted on by Jake Boase

This page has been updated. The ISDN switch off did not complete in December 2025. Openreach extended the deadline, and the analogue network now shuts down permanently on 31 January 2027.

For the current position, including the 2026 price rises on legacy lines and what happens to alarms, lifts and card machines, read our full guide: The Big Switch Off: what the January 2027 landline shutdown means for your business.

What is ISDN?

ISDN stands for Integrated Services Digital Network. It is a digital line that runs over copper wiring, and it was considerably faster than the traditional analogue lines that came before it, carrying both data and voice calls. Its weakness is that it depends entirely on physical copper infrastructure, which is expensive to maintain and increasingly difficult to repair.

Why the date moved

Openreach announced back in 2015 that it would stop selling ISDN in 2020 and switch the network off in 2025. The stop sell happened as planned in September 2023, and no new ISDN or analogue lines have been available since.

The final shutdown, however, was pushed back. In 2024 the deadline moved from December 2025 to 31 January 2027, largely to allow more time to migrate vulnerable users and telecare devices safely. That extension is the reason this page needed rewriting.

The new date is fixed. Openreach has been clear it will not move again, and exchanges are already being migrated in phases, so many businesses will lose analogue service before January 2027 rather than on the day itself.

There is now a further reason not to wait. Lines not moved by 31 January 2027 may be put on Openreach’s temporary emergency voice service, but ISDN and multi-line services are not covered by it, according to Gamma’s September 2026 statement. An ISDN system left in place risks being ceased. The full guide explains what happens after the deadline.

What to do if you still have an ISDN line

You need to migrate to a digital service, which in practice means VoIP. Your existing numbers can be ported across, so nothing changes for your customers.

Two things are worth knowing. First, VoIP depends on your internet connection, so if your broadband is also running over the old copper network it makes sense to upgrade both together. Second, it is not only phones that are affected. Alarm panels, lift emergency lines, door entry systems and older card terminals all commonly sit on analogue lines and need their own migration path.

Legacy line rental is also rising steeply through 2026 in three separate wholesale increases, so staying on copper is now the expensive option as well as the one with a deadline attached.

Get help before the deadline

We migrate businesses across West Sussex from ageing ISDN and analogue setups onto modern hosted phone systems, handling the audit, the number porting and the connectivity as one project.

Call 01903 255 159 or read the full Big Switch Off guide to see what applies to you.

What is SoGEA Broadband?

Posted on by Jake Boase

SoGEA Overview

You want it, you got it

You want to get your internet faster and at an attractive price. So say hello to single order generic ethernet access, or the more easily said, SoGEA. It’ll be familiar to you as our current broadband service with that extra wow factor, including easy ordering, less complications and better pricing.

Single line, no PSTN line

We’ve improved the order journey so now in just one order, we can now get internet to our customers quicker than before. With no need to make two orders, one for PSTN and one for ethernet, life’s a lot easier.

Fast ethernet. Friendly prices.

SoGEA is around 30 per cent cheaper than our our FTTC (Fibre To The Cabinet). And with just one order to manage, you can get internet from us quickly, with an improved experience.

Building on our network

Our network of tomorrow is home to our leading-class ethernet services. So you can rest in confidence that you’re getting an internet service that is robust, reliable and far-reaching.

Small changes, big differences

SoGEA is just like our existing FTTC. Except for the fact that it’s around 30 per cent cheaper, is done in one order and can help you save costs.  Want to know more about SoGEA? Read all about it

When it comes down to it, you want to get your internet fast and at a good price. That’s where our ‘rolls-off-the-tongue’ single order generic ethernet access, or SoGEA, comes in. It’s our entry-level ethernet service that’s as good as it was before. But now it comes with easy ordering, less complications and better pricing. What more could you want?

It’s fine without the PSTN line

With SoGEA, we’ve improved the order journey. Now it just takes one order, meaning you can get your ethernet set up and running for your customers simpler and quicker than before. Gone is the process of having to make two orders, one for PSTN and once installed, a further ethernet order.

The Broadband of tomorrow. In one easy order journey

Quicker installs

As there’s only one line you’ll be able to deliver your service quicker and cheaper compared to when you had to order a PSTN line. You’ll get up and running faster so you can start browsing the web sooner.

We’ve got you covered

Not only do we deliver some of the fastest broadband speeds, but we have some of the widest coverage too, reaching over 28.5 million premises. Which means we’ll have you covered from now, up to the PSTN switch off and beyond.

Helping you prepare for an all-IP future

Get head of the 2025 switch-off. We’ll be on hand to help throughout the whole process. You can say goodbye to the PSTN line early with SoGEA for broadband and we’ll make sure the transition is as seamless as possible.

Be better than the rest

Our network performs better than the industry average on latency, packet loss and jitter. And we can give you industry-leading maximum, average, peak-time and minimum fibre speeds.

Ethernet at its best

Great ethernet at great prices

On top of the fact that you can get GEA quicker and via a simpler service experience, SoGEA for ethernet is also approximately 30 per cent cheaper than our GEA-FTTC. With only one order to manage and one line to pay for, you can deliver connectivity to your customers fast, improving customer experience and enabling you to generate revenue quicker too.

A network you can rely on

Our ethernet services are built on our network of the future. You can take advantage of our investments and innovation and a national core and backhaul network that runs at better than 99.999 availability. So you can give your customers the reliability they need.

Same but better

SoGEA for ethernet is still the same GEA service which includes the existing flexibility that you can support asymmetric bandwidths within the same fixed price structure. It just now comes in a single order that saves time, money and effort.

Sound good to you?

If you’re interested in taking the next step of adding SoGEA for ethernet to your portfolio, get in touch with one of our experts and they can help.

Conference call benefits using VoIP

Posted on by Tobias Gillott

VoIP for Business has become a known service in the marketplace. Most businesses these days use it and appreciat the many benefits it can bring them. The benefits associated with VoIP for Business have been highlighted by the increases in working from home and remote working following the pandemic stay at home rules. That has resulted in a risen need for video conferencing as a must for all businesses, large and small.

Not so long ago, if an employee wasn’t at the office they were uncontactable. This meant communications between a working team and clients difficult in terms of their communication, often resulting in frustration and less productivity.

Since then though, in came the world of Business VoIP and simply put, changed the world of business communications with it’s modern features such as video-conferencing capability, HD voice calls, call recording and much more. Whether you are inside or outside the office, communication is possible wherever you are.

Benefits include:

Cost:

Using VoIP telephone systems are charged per license and can come with unlimited minutes for a low monthly cost. Because the calls are routed over the Internet, rather than the PSTN, phone charges can be avoided in most cases. This is particularly beneficial in conferences involving long-distance and international connections.

Mobility

The ability of smart devices like tablets and smartphones to support video calling over WiFi or your phone network (3G/4G) brings great benefits in accessibility and mobility. A member of the team can make and receive voice and video calls and participate in group and individual video-conferences on their smart device exactly as if they were sitting at their desk, from wherever they are in the world.

Depending on the capabilities of the smart device, this can include other VoIP features such as call forwarding and pick-up, voicemail placing and retrieval. For remote workers, what is different today is the growing availability of WiFi, both at clients premises and in public spaces such as coffee shops and hotels. This gives greater ability to allow for better communication.

Most businesses have WiFi, and public spaces, such as shopping centres now provide free WiFi. Using public WiFi means that remote and mobile workers can now connect to the business network from anywhere there is WiFi or a strong phone connection. Fully integrating remote and mobile workers into the work place is now a reality.

Improved Teamwork

In this modern work businesses make voice, video and conference calls using smart devices and a WiFi connection to the corporate network rather than by mobile phone or PSTN. Being able to interact visually with another staff member brings great teamwork and communication benefits.

That allows remote and mobile workers to participate fully in teamwork and teamwork events, exactly as if they are onsite in the company of the rest of the team allowing for more flexible working.

As a result of better communication, response times and the quality of responses are improved. Being able to be contacted at any time by colleagues and customers means staff members can respond more quickly. Being able to take immediate actions and be more visible to staff and customers means they can be more effective without the worry of being out of touch with other team members.

Improved Efficiency

As an example of administration improvements, staff no longer need to organise meeting locations. Video conferencing means that all participants can participate from where they are just as if they were in the room.

Having staff available to customers at all times, wherever they are and at any time, brings significant improvements to workplace efficiency and effectiveness, and for external viewers, to the company’s business profile looks much better.

Overall, Business VoIP brings significant benefits to a business by reducing communications costs and keeping staff contactable. The intangible benefits of improved communications leading to improvements in teamwork and staff morale are not so easily measured but are undoubtedly there.

If you are wanting to know more about the benefits of VoIP for business then get in touch with us on 01903 255 159

Is VoIP a viable alternative to your business telephone system?

Posted on by Jake Boase

VoIP phones use voice over internet protocol (VoIP) technology to deliver an internet based telephone service.

Calls are delivered over the internet rather than the traditional legacy technology of the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) or Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN). Both the PSTN and ISDN networks are set to be decommissioned shortly.

Due to the reduced infrastructure needed to deliver phone calls on VoIP technology, voice calls can be provided at a very low cost.

VoIP services also use the internet to deliver phone system functionality to the end user. Many new features and useful services are available to small/medium businesses that were previously unaffordable to SME budgets. These include voicemail-to-email, call recording, instant messages, international calling, music-on-hold and call diverts.

While VoIP is not a new technology, it has fast become the standard for business telephony and communication, fast outpacing the growth of ISDN and ‘traditional’ PBXs and on-the-wall telephone systems.

What is VOIP?

A great place to start is to look at VoIP itself, and how it can replace your phone system. VoIP stands for Voice Over IP. VoIP is a method of communication that uses data packets and your broadband connection; as opposed to an analogue line or ISDN circuit. 

Hosted VoIP phone systems can dramatically reduce your costs by removing or reducing things like:

  • Telephone system maintenance
  • Call charges
  • Multiple telephone lines
  • Cost of spares and repairs
  • System installation costs
  • System upgrades

There are many reasons to upgrade to VoIP. Perhaps the main reason would be the cost savings it can result in for all businesses. VoIP can massively reduce a businesses running cost by removing maintenance, installation and costly equipment.

Another reason why many businesses choose to upgrade is the better call quality. Because it uses packet data rather than analogue lines, VoIP is often much higher quality when compared to traditional ISDN and telephone systems.

The third main reason is the flexibility of VoIP. Traditionally, if you wanted to add another phone to your telephone system, then you would need to potentially upgrade your entire system and get in a new line from BT which comes at a high cost. However, VOIP allows you to just add another licence – and therefore a handset. You can even use a mobile app for further flexibility and mobility.

Do I need a VoIP phone?

Openreach is intending to stop providing PSTN and ISDN phone lines completely in the UK by 2025.

This is because the existing telephone service infrastructure is dated and expensive to maintain. As a result, making the switch a VoIP phone system and internet telephony should be a priority for every business regardless of size or what the business does.

VoIP is a method of communication taking the market by storm.

To find out more on VoIP then give our specialist VoIP team a call on 01903 255 159 or visit our VoIP page for more information on prices.

Making your video conference as productive as possible

Posted on by Jake Boase

Working remotely has been the norm for a lot of people for almost a year now, since the pandemic hit. Working from anywhere apart from the office was always seen as a perk and a trendy new incentive, but one year on video call fatigue is hitting and lots of people are losing the drive that was once thriving. 

So how can you help boost your video calls to make them as useful as possible?

We’ve pulled together some tips and guidance to running a really successful video conference. Following these helpful tips will hopefully ensure your meeting runs smoothly – although we can’t guarantee that the doorbell won’t ring, or that your child won’t come asking for a snack!

Choose the best software for your business

There are so many different applications available when it comes to video conferencing, but how do you choose which is right for your business? Look at the packages on offer and all of the amazing features that come along with it.

Easy to join

Having multiple device choices available from your software allows it to become more accessible to anyone. Whether you’re joining from your computer at your desk, or mobile on a walk, you want to be reachable from everywhere. Clear and simple joining instructions are key in starting your meeting off in the right tone.

Good connection

It seems obvious, but so important! There is nothing more disruptive than a bad connection – glitches, lags and alien like voices. Ensure your team have the best connection possible to eliminate all avoidable distractions.

Strong agenda

When sending over your meeting invitation, set out a clear agenda so everyone can be prepped and ready. Follow up with meeting notes, like you would in the office to make sure you’ve achieved everything you wanted.

Encourage participation

Using an application which allows interactive tasks can help make your session become a little different and much more engaging. Encourage everyone to take part and turn their cameras on, but still be mindful that this isn’t normal for some and this can still be uncomfortable.

Time conscious

Keep it as short as possible – but not so short that it could have been an email.  It’s much easier for our attention spans to become shorter when on a video call than a real-life meeting, so by keeping an eye on the time you’ll be able to capture your audience for the key parts.

Record for reference

Choose software which allows your session to be recorded, so that you and others can refer back to check notes and actions. This can also be really helpful to share if someone was unable to join at the time.

Work from home – work from anywhere

Posted on by Jake Boase

Your average office life, 9-5 structure has been shaken over the last few years with millennials and Gen Z demanding more flexibility and a better work life balance. The pandemic has certainly added to this shake up, since we’ve been forced to adapt, with evidence showing that a flexible work approach is achievable.

But where do we go from here?

We now know that the technology and ability to work from home is extremely realistic in certain roles, can we push this to a ‘work from anywhere’ approach? Why limit this to just home when you can work on the go, in a coffee shop, or whilst out and about?

Introducing a hybrid flexible working approach gives your employees the best of all worlds, all whilst being as productive as possible. With the latest technology offering high quality video calling, content sharing, collaborative whiteboard sessions, chats and so much more, colleagues can stay connected, regardless of their device or location.

New talent will want a workplace that offers such flexibility, so don’t be caught behind with stagnant technology. Introduce a fresh innovative phone system, like eve, so your staff can be exceptional everywhere.

Staying safe while working from home

Posted on by Jake Boase

Security at work has always been essential in every business, especially when it comes to staying safe online, but how does that work now that many of us are working remotely?

Unfortunately, the freedom of working from home, or anywhere outside of the office, does increase the need to be vigilant around cyber security. This doesn’t mean that you can’t work as safely as when you were in the office. You just need the right solutions in place, from a secure phone system to remote IT support that can reach your staff wherever they work.

A modern hosted phone system, like eve, can offer enhanced security and peace of mind, by protecting users from fraudulent activity. Exceptional Call Protection is a key feature of eve, which monitors your call patterns and volumes to scan for any particular high-risk categories, such as premium rate calls. It is even possible for eve to block any outbound calls, if suspicious activity is detected.

Using a solution like eve will provide the reassurance you need to relax, safe in the knowledge that your business is protected, no matter where your staff are located.

Take a look at this feature in more detail, here.

Dealing with an influx of calls

Posted on by Jake Boase

COVID-19 restrictions have resulted in many businesses experiencing an influx of inbound calls. Whether it’s rearranging bookings, making appointments, or general customer support requests, keeping your customers happy is essential. 

Call Queue

My call queuing feature means callers can be placed in a queue in the event that all of your team are busy. You can enable comfort messaging, music, or even allow them to automatically request a call back.

Automatic Call Distribution

Evenly distribute calls to queues, bespoke recordings or specific team members. Directing calls to the right person means that the customer experience is as smooth as possible and that queries are dealt with in the most efficient manner. 

Music/Marketing-on-Hold

Use the time while your customers wait to tell them about your new products or services, invite them to events or even just reassure them that their call will be answered soon. You can also have a message to announce what place the caller is in the queue and the average wait time for their call to be answered.

Voicemail

It is always hoped that all calls can be answered, but in the instance where it’s not possible, a voicemail should be used to maintain professionalism. 

Call Recording

It’s important that you keep a record of calls. These can be used for enhancing customer service and for training purposes, as well as to refer back to, if a dispute were ever to happen.

Ensuring that you maintain exceptional customer service during these times is crucial. If you’d like to find out more about setting up your phone system for the best service, email us info@atsconnection.co.uk

Top tips on keeping motivated while working from home

Posted on by Jake Boase

First of all, it’s fundamental that you have the right internet connection. Most businesses depend on the internet to operate, so think about what would happen to productivity if your connection couldn’t cope with what you’re trying to achieve. 

Ensuring seamless communication with your colleagues and customers is also essential when working from home. Just because you’re unable to physically be in a room with your colleagues, it doesn’t mean you should have to stop communicating. Software that has instant messaging capabilities, as well as access to a full list of your team members, can help you get quick answers, just as you could face to face. 

Keeping track of all communication you have with customers is important and this should not slip off the radar when working away from the office. CRM Integration can mean that any calls made from mobiles/softphones can be logged within the CRM with ease, just as they would in the office. eve offers CRM Integration that can enable you to maintain quality customer service, from wherever you need to work. 

Separating working from your home life is essential. Wherever possible, be sure to work from a separate room, rather than one you associate with relaxing, to ensure your brain is not tempted to confuse the two.

If you’d like to find out more about how eve can enable you to work from home, email info@atsconnections.co.uk

How secure is our VOIP system?

Posted on by Jake Boase

What does it mean to keep a VoIP telephone service safe? Safety and security mean two things to us, our customers – connection safety and the safety of customer data/usage.

Here at Arun Tech Support, we want our customers to feel confident we are giving our clients an extremely reliable and robust service. That means no downtime, no data breaches, or fraudulent acts.

You rely on us to provide a secure reliable telephone service without the risk of fraud. Read on to find out how we achieve that.

Reliability Assured

For your busy customers, a loss of phone lines could be catastrophic. Not just an annoyance. We get it – reliability is key when it comes to VoIP services and unlike some other providers, we’re confident enough in our solution and backup practices to guarantee a minimum of 99.9% availability of our hosted telephone switchboard system.

Here’s how we can make that promise:

  • Each customer has a virtual switchboard server which is hosted on one of several physical servers in one of our data centres. Our physical servers are inherently fault-tolerant.
  • We keep a backup copy of each customer’s server configuration in at least two data centres.
  • If one of our servers fails, we attempt to restart it immediately using an automated mechanism. If the automatic restart does not work, we start up a fresh standby server from a backup image. This process takes less than one hour.
  • If one of our data centres were to suffer a major catastrophic failure of their equipment, we can switch all services to a secondary data centre.
  • For customers who require the highest possible level of failover contingency, we set up a hot standby server in a secondary data centre. Any changes to the configuration of the primary server are copied to the standby server immediately. If the primary server fails, we can switch the customer’s service to the standby server within 10 minutes.

Call Fraud Protection

Hackers and scammers will try to exploit any technology possible and even VoIP hasn’t been immune in the past.

Call fraud is when a criminal manages to piggyback off a VoIP system to make calls. This can be to commit further fraud using your customers’ telephone number or simply because they don’t fancy paying for their own VoIP solution!

Fortunately, call fraud is quite easy to detect for us and we have three levels of protection to ensure your customers don’t fall victim to a scammer.

  • Our carrier maintains a blacklist of popular call destinations which fraudsters use. They alert us immediately to any unusual traffic from a customer’s telephone numbers so that we can investigate.
  • We set a daily spend limit on each customer’s account. By default, this is set to £10 in 24 hours. This limit can be increased if appropriate. Our system sends us an automatic alert if the customer exceeds their 24-hour limit. We also have an option to automatically cut off block further outgoing calls if the spend limited is reached.
  • To make calls through our system, a fraudster would need to gain access to a customer’s telephone connection details on a switchboard server. We protect against this by applying strong randomly generated passwords to each connection and each server. We recommend that these passwords are either left unchanged or, if they need to be changed, you use our random password generator.

If for some reason fraudulent calls do occur (unlikely!), then your customer will not incur any penalties or have to pay for the calls – unless the fraud occurred due to their security lapse or system misuse.

Our Promises

We pride ourselves on our commitment to reliability and security. Here are our guarantees:

  • Guaranteed minimum of 99.9% availability of our hosted telephone switchboard system
  • A switch to our backup server within one hour should we experience main server loss
  • Customer will not incur financial losses due to fraudulent calls being made from their account unless the fraud was due to customer negligence
  • Guaranteed safe numbers – customers telephone numbers will never be released or sold to anyone
  • Telephone calls and recordings are kept completely private and secure
  • Smooth, safe, fuss-free transition to another service provider should the customer request it

If you are interested in our VoIP services with a guaranteed secure solution, then get in touch today.