Telephony services have relied on the use of copper wire pairs for the last 150 years. In that time service providers have made a considerable investment in installing and maintaining the copper-based infrastructure that the public switched telephone network (PSTN) relied on.
But the venerable PSTN is reaching the end of its life. Its old technology is increasingly difficult to maintain and many customers are using alternative methods of communications.

Although those copper pairs now also provide broadband services as well as telephony, the ultimate plan is to also retire and remove the copper infrastructure. BT in the UK estimates they can recover an estimated 200,000 tonnes of copper through the 2030s.

The ultimate aim of service provides is to move customers to fibre to the premises with telephony using voice over IP (VoIP) techniques.

The European Union (EU) has a target of switching off copper-based services entirely by 2030 while in the UK, the incumbent operator BT has the aim of moving its PSTN users to VoIP services by 2027. However, many of those BT customers will be migrated to VoIP over the copper pairs that still provide Internet access.

There are many challenges for service providers in achieving their aims. A recent report revealed that just ten countries in the EU were expected to meet the 2030 deadline. For example, Belgium predicted it would migrate 80% of customers to an all-fibre service by 2034 and reach 100% by 2040.

The main hurdle to total migration is not technical but human. Customers need to be prepared for the required changes to how they access a service and convinced by the benefits that can ensue from an all-digital environment. But there are also technical issues: alarm services may not work over a digital connection and VoIP telephony requires battery backup to retain service provision when mains supply fails.

Apart for residential customers, businesses also need to be prepared. It has been reported that less than 26% of businesses in the UK have a plan in place for the switch-off of analogue telephony and less than one in ten are aware of the 2027 deadline.

Education and preparation are therefore key to a successful transition to an all-fibre future.
PTT online courses include those covering “Telephony and data services”, “Introduction to telephony”, and “Voice over IP”.