Britain’s specialist business telecoms providers have helped launched an initiative to help business owners get informed before the 2025 copper telephone network switch-off deadline.
An all-industry, supplier-agnostic Fit To Switch campaign has been launched by Comms Business magazine.
When BT retires the old pre-war copper telephone network in 2025, businesses are going to be expected to be all-fibre, all-IT. That means a huge amount of legacy equipment – from emergency pull-cords in disabled toilets to automatic process overload sensors to overnight computer back-ups – will probably need ripping out and replacing with new, mains-powered kit. And if you want it to keep working in a power cut, it’ll need battery back-up as well, the campaign warns.
An initial test-marketing campaign for Fit To Switch has already engaged 115,815 factory-owners and senior engineering managers via editorial features and survey questionnaires in Operations Engineer, Manufacturing Management, The Engineer and Transport Engineer publications.
Comms Business publisher Mat Swift said: “Fit To Switch has been two years in the making. It started with, frankly, our incredulity that nobody was leading this campaign, it reflected on Openreach’s frustration at the difficulties of influencing business owners, it moved through serious discussions with the big wholesale providers and it ended up with a full-blown sanity-testing campaign with real factory owners.”
Fit To Switch carries the message to check and replace legacy equipment straight to Britain’s business-owners and senior managers. The campaign has been supported by specialist connectivity brands including Daisy, Gamma, Giacom and Sangoma, as founding National Champions.
“Together with CSL, the internet-of-things specialists and Comms Council UK, our National Champions’ support means the website at launch already represents the largest concentration of knowledge and specialist resources on the subject. That will only grow as more businesses use the site to assess their own potential vulnerabilities, free of charge,” Mat added.
Visit www.fittoswitch.co.uk to find out more and become ‘Fit to switch’ your heating and plumbing business.