The historical fixed telephony provider Orange (formerly France Telecom), using so-called PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) technology, has announced its upcoming scheduled end.
Indeed, this so-called traditional telephony, which is currently still used by a large number of individuals but also companies for their communication needs (via the use of analog or digital PABX/PBX), as well as for many services such as alarms, elevator phones, emergency lines, etc., will no longer evolve starting from late 2018 (no new line activations), and will tend to be replaced by IP telephony as of 2021.
“PSTN is the old voice service that has already been largely replaced by IP telephony, which is an Internet protocol, for all box subscribers across all operators”. (source Orange via AFP)
Why is that?
Because PSTN technology is becoming expensive to maintain and is obsolete in terms of performance. On the corporate side, analog/digital telephony servers are also increasingly old and heavy energy consumers.
The democratization of IP, and therefore IP telephony since 2003 in France with the use of DSL IP boxes, greatly facilitates this usage and pushes the historical provider of PSTN lines to announce the end of this network.
“In any case, we will offer a strictly equivalent fixed-only service via IP telephony, without any obligation to add an Internet subscription”, Orange added.
The shutdown of the PSTN network will take place gradually starting from 2021, and by geographical area. In a statement published Tuesday, the telecommunications regulatory authority (ARCEP) assured that it would not oppose the closure of the PSTN network as long as the operator respects “a certain number of notice periods,” including announcing the shutdown at least five years in advance for each geographical area.
