The upcoming digital telecoms switchover is something every business should be aware of by now. At the very least, your existing telephony provider should have contacted you to inform you about what they are going to do, why, and on what timescale. Some may have already completed the job.
In addition to all this, the government has provided information as well to explain the whole process, which will be completed for almost everyone by the end of January 2027.
The new system should work very well, but if it does not, you may have good reasons to switch telecoms provider, something our new service can enable you to do.
What Is Changing?
At the heart of all this is the transformation of the telephone network by switching away from the old analogue systems that depend on various wires and cables underground, to a new system based on taking all signals and sound, repackaging them as parcels of information, and sending them via the internet.
This system, known as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), may sound complex, but in the end, this is the equivalent of switching from steam trains to diesel or electric, or from propeller-driven planes to jets. Like a plane or train, it does the same thing, but better.
However, while this is the theory, in practice, there can be problems. Yes, there won’t need to be cables and parts replaced with roads being dug up for the purpose, but VoIP is not without potential problems. The system usually works very well, but not always.
What Can Go Wrong?
For this reason, if your telecoms provider has switched you over, you might already have noticed instances when the system does not seem to work quite as smoothly as you were promised. If they are yet to do so, then there will be things you notice after this takes place.
It is very useful to note these things, firstly, so you can identify a problem and have some idea how it should be tackled (and if you can do this yourself in-house or need your telecoms provider to find and engineer), but also because this enables you to understand what you should be able to expect from your telecoms firm.
Among the most common problems is choppy audio. This is a very common issue when the packets of data arrive out of sync or are delayed, which means you don’t hear them the way the speaker at the other end spoke them. You may miss whole words or sentences, or simply hear a robotic-sounding voice. That can make communicating with clients problematic.
Common causes include a lack of bandwidth, a weak Wi-Fi signal, or too many devices using the same system. In some cases, this might be something your in-house IT expert can tackle, but a telephony provider may be able to solve the issue by installing extra capacity so more devices can use the system simultaneously.
Dropped Calls are a term for a call that cuts out suddenly and prematurely. Network spikes, an unstable internet connection and a session initiation protocol application layer gateway SIP ALG) issue – this being a system designed to manage VoIP traffic that inadvertently cuts a signal off – may also be a cause.
Problems with SIP ALG can also lead to issues such as jittering, which is a cause of choppy audio as it stops data packets from arriving in order and on time, or even failing to manage VoIP traffic, which leaves you with a silent line.
Finding Solutions Swiftly
Some issues are easily resolvable. For example, a phone echo problem may be caused simply by not having the microphone too close to the headset, while other problems may be resolved by having the settings changed.
Where you may need more help is when there is a problem that can only be fixed by the telephony provider. You may need more capacity, or there is a genuine hardware issue with the phones, rather than a glitch with what your internet service provider (which may or may not be the same company) has given you.
One way or another, any problem you get should be fixable and if it is something your telephony provider can resolve, it is a clear test of the standard of their service, whether they manage to do so swiftly and effectively, first time and every time, without you needing to call them back and say there is still a problem.
Just as you would change your garage if a problem with your car were still there after a service, so failures to fix your VoIP telephony issues will give you every reason to change your telecoms provider.
