The last two years have understandably seen unprecedented levels of business uncertainty and therefore hesitancy in making decisions on long-term working environments and practices. It is no wonder that many businesses have not acted on the direction of their core telecommunications and internet requirements.

We are now though seeing businesses review their telecoms connectivity and infrastructure, whether that be a return to the office or most likely a robust, long term and more flexible hybrid working environment.

The analogue and ISDN network switch off, which is now well under way and scheduled to complete in 2025, will also be a major factor in these decisions. The old copper based telephony network is due to be decommissioned and we will move to an all-IP world for these services.  This will also have a knock on effect on existing broadband and other services such as credit card machines and alarm systems. 

There has been significant investment in the roll out of full fibre infrastructure over the last few years, with many more options and suppliers available to choose from.  This is great news in this period of change, however businesses should tread carefully as there is likely to be a significant disparity between all of the different service offerings. 

This is a considerable technology change and so more emphasis should be put on quality and reliability. It is essential that both Repair and Performance Service Level Agreements are considered to ensure that business applications and telephony services continue to work as expected and that users remain connected to the company network regardless of where they are located.

Security will continue to be at the forefront of matters, with more robust company private networks. Cloud hosted firewall services allow for the straightforward addition and ongoing management of different locations and user types.

Finally, mobile data technology is really becoming more prevalent in its use by business. Intelligent mobile solutions are now a serious consideration, providing genuine fixed line replacement services and always on solutions with much higher levels of flexibility in data connectivity.  We also anticipate the use of IoT connected services to be more accessible and increase dramatically as businesses look to become more efficient and increase productivity.

Spitfire were once again highly commended for our network at the annual Comms Business Awards.  We now connect directly with nine different wholesale provider’s fibre networks, which we have optimised for our cloud hosted telephony and security solutions. We really are best placed to assist you in the journey to full-fibre, all-IP and mobile data and look forward to helping you further.