BT release study into digital network upgrades

BT has commissioned a report from Assembly Research to look at the economic benefits of migrating Critical National Infrastructure away from old legacy networks such as PSTN, 2G and 3G onto new fully digital IP infrastructure and has identified that migrations could provide £3bn net economic benefit by 2040

Some of the obvious costs of remaining on the old networks are that the infrastructure is becoming more costly to maintain. Therefore, there are definitely some key benefits in moving to a newer IP-based platform. Some specific factors that the report has identified that could provide savings are:

• Preventing 750,000 unnecessary ambulance trips – averaging more than 100 avoided journeys every day.
• Freeing up 12 million hours of council staff time – equal to around 6,500 staff working full-time for a year.
• Saving over 600,000 NHS staff hours – comparable to the annual workload of 350 full-time employees.
• Avoiding up to 280,000 false fire service callouts as businesses move away from legacy fire alarms, equivalent to 54 false alarms every day.
• Cutting 3.42 megatonnes of carbon emissions – equal to powering every home in Birmingham for a year.

The first claim of this – saving 750,000 ambulance trips seems to be based on replacing analogue telecare devices with digital ones, which are more reliable and can enable more proactive and preventive care. It’s not clear that they have identified the costs of putting in this preventive care, however.

“This research sends a clear message: delaying the shift to digital carries a real cost to public services, the environment and the wider economy. Legacy systems are becoming increasingly unreliable, and the case for action is urgent. BT is committed to guiding the UK’s critical national infrastructure sectors through this upgrade with the resilience and support they need.”

Jon James, CEO, BT Business

There are other risks involved in moving from an analogue infrastructure largely based on BT’s PSTN service to newer systems, which make use of services like VoIP, which are less tested or more prone to software issues, for example, the Vonage issue, which blocked access to emergency services for a 10-day period.

If you are concerned about the PSTN switch-off and what it means for you, then take a look at our guide on this to see what you can do to prepare.