In this timely article, Nigel Milligan urges schools to ring in the changes as the UK prepares to retire its analogue phone network, highlighting practical options for making the switch to digital
2027 seems a long way off for many of us. But we’re already halfway through 2025 and before we know it January 2027 will soon be here, and the old analogue telephone lines in the UK that use the public switched telephone network will be switched off permanently. BT are urging everyone, especially schools and businesses, to make the switch to all digital IP phones by the end of December 2025 to ensure there’s no loss of service.
What Are Your Choices?
There are many options available to choose from. The two most popular choices for many are cloud hosted, or on-premises hosted systems. Both solutions use your internet connection for all handsets in school. There are even options to have virtual handsets on mobile devices and desktop computers. The costs vary depending on the service provider and scale of the system required.
Modern telephone systems will have many standard features such as auto attendants, voicemail and call recording as well as hold music etc. Look carefully at all the features that are available as standard and consider any additional features and whether they will be used. There’s no point paying for services that you will never use. One recent example at a school we spoke to was a voicemail to email feature that had never been used.
Some providers will offer different levels of commitment. My recommendation is to never commit to anything more than three years as pricing changes very quickly and if you’re tied in for five years then you will ultimately end up paying more. There is a great provider called Circleloop who offers a cloud hosted system on a rolling monthly contract with an unlimited plan per line with a huge complement of features and options.
A very popular self-hosted system that many academy trusts are adopting is 3CX. This offers various hosting options from on premises to cloud hosted and is very cost effective starting from 11-25 users with eight simultaneous calls. 3CX also offers a vast selection of features as well as mobile and desktop applications plus integration with Google and Microsoft too. Whilst this is a great scalable solution, it does create a large single point of failure if a centrally hosted system is in use across a large group of school sites. If each school has a dedicated system, then the risk of everyone being affected is reduced.
Altenerative Options Available
- BT Cloud Voice – I have personal experience with one school. This is a great system, but it is quite expensive even on a five-year agreement. We will be moving the school away from BT Cloud Voice in July 2025 over to 3CX.
- RingCentral – Another cloud hosted system with lots of options available.
- Google Voice – If your school uses Google Workspace this could be a great option as this integrates across the whole of the platform. You can use this on mobile devices as well as desk phones.
One of the best value features that I have experienced within schools is the call recording option. This has been invaluable in supporting safeguarding cases as well as providing evidence with complaints and attendance issues (pupils & staff).
The best thing to do if you haven’t made the switch yet is to speak to your IT Support Provider and reach out to specialist telephone system providers who can provide you with comparative quotations. If you need any further advice, please feel free to reach out to me.
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