Traditional fixed telephone lines will be switched off in 2025 which means you may wonder what your business’ options are going forward.
Thankfully, SoGEA and FTTP are here to replace traditional telephony and offer you cheap, reliable and speedy internet access – but what are they?
Here’s a look at the two replacements and why your business could benefit from them.
What is SOGEA?
SoGEA (Single Order Generic Ethernet Access) is a stand-alone fibre broadband without the phone line attached. Using the soon to be obsolete Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN), you would be forced to pay for the additional telephone service to get the broadband line. so ultimately it saves you money.
Here are some of the main benefits:
It’s widely available
SOGEA is available in around 95% of premises in the UK – so it’s widely available for both businesses and homes.
It’s reliable, quick and easy to install with a new service able to be up and running within five working days without invasive downtime to your business’s communications. If you’re also setting up a cloud-hosted phone system this can be managed at the same time.
This means you can keep your business connectivity up to date with minimum hassle.
Stable and resilient
SoGEA will offer you better performance than you’re used to as no call traffic can interfere with the lines.
The removal of traditional phone line frequencies on the broadband circuit means there is less of a chance of interference and an unstable connection, plus the removal of the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) circuit means that there is one less element to cause potential line faults.
Cost effective
SoGEA allows service providers to provide your business with a standalone broadband service. This means you no longer need to be tied up with a landline package. You’re therefore likely to expect a cheaper rate while still experiencing the benefits of reliable and fast broadband.
Putting your budget into delivering the bandwidth you need will support any digital transformation plans you have. This will allow you to grow and scale your business. On the whole with SoGEA, you only pay for the services you need.
Future-proofed
With no phone lines needed to sure up your service, you have the flexibility to achieve your growth plans.
But if you want a voice service you’ll need to use a VoIP provider. If you aren’t already using hosted VoIP solutions for your phone calls, now’s a good time to move over. You’ll be able to make and receive calls over the cloud and keep your phone numbers. Onecom can help with this – find out more about our VoIP services.
SoGEA can support a cloud-hosted phone system or SIP services to an on-site phone system until full fibre services become available. Where an older phone system is not compatible with SIP, a SIP convertor can be used in some cases.
What is FTTP?
FFTP is short for Fibre to the Premises. Rather than reach your business via the cabinet near your office building like FTTC (Fibre To The Cabinet), FTTP travels directly from your internet provider and through to your site all the way on fibre optic cables, making it the fastest type of fibre on the market. In fact, it can reach speeds of up to an impressive 1Gbps. That’s seriously fast!
If you require super-fast connectivity, it’s worth reading into the benefits of FTTP:
Up to 900Mbps
The biggest benefit of FTTP as we’ve mentioned is super fast WiFi connection, with faster download speeds of up to 900 Mb/s.
This will have a useful impact on your business as it will allow you to maintain your networks and keep communications flowing between your clients, customers and stakeholders. Also, with FTTP providing higher bandwidth and lower latency, your business is able to process high volumes of data much quicker.
FTTP is the kind of connectivity that compliments an advanced Unified Communications solution, such as 8x8. 8x8’s single integrated unified communications and cloud platform combines all your essential business tools, including workforce management, contact centre, and office productivity applications managed and controlled in one place.
Voice Capabilities
Like SoGEA, businesses who want to continue using their existing telephone numbers will need to subscribe to a VoIP service.
If you’re using a full fibre connection, then you can expect your VoIP calls to be ultra-reliable. Why? Because of the way FTTP broadband is built direct to your property, your connection is unlimited and unrestricted.
Perfect for Contact centres
It’s important you have a reliable internet connection to support your contact centres, in order to provide a quality caller experience. This is easy to achieve with FTTP and a cloud contact centre solution such as Onecom OneContact, but you’ll need to make sure that anyone looking to connect to the services from outside the office, such as home and hybrid workers, also have access to these technologies.
With the ISDN and PSTN switch off there is no good reason to continue using old phone lines. Especially, when you can save money, get more reliability and have calls that can meet your business demand.
We partner with Vodafone to bring our customers simple and fastest broadband yet, and we recently won Strategic Partner of the Year for an incredible 11th year running, as well as the Innovation Partner of the Year Award for the second year in a row.
For more information about SoGEA or FTTP, contact our experts on 03300 888 999.
Catch up with our webinar, ‘Preparing for the ISDN Switch Off’ on-demand here: https://www.onecom.co.uk/isdn-switch-off-webinar
