The Comms Business Fit To Switch campaign is raising awareness about the public switched telephone network (PSTN) switch-off in January 2027 and the impact it will have on organisations across the UK. Avire, specialists in lift safety and communications, is the latest company to join the campaign, alongside 8x8, CSL Group, Larato, Openreach and Telecom Resource.
The company decided to put its support behind the campaign in a bid to drive greater awareness and urgency around the need to make the digital switchover in the lift industry. Ultimately, it wants to educate people about the risks and challenges of the switch-off, and what they need to do to prepare for it, avoiding putting people’s lives at risk.
Matthew Davies, business development manager for digital and services at Avire, said that of the 310,000 passenger lifts Avire serves, 250,000 are still connected to the old analogue PSTN lines.
“Many people are still unaware of the PSTN switch-off and what it will mean for them,” said Davies. “Primarily, they don’t know what their telephone lines are connected to and what they are used for.
“In our case, they are used for lift alarms, so it’s critical to keep them going for passenger safety. Then, alongside awareness is the urgency piece, where people still think that they have a lot of time before the switch-off happens after it was pushed back to January 2027, but the reality is they don’t.”
Davies said that there are many teething problems that need to be resolved before the deadline, including lift alarms being knocked out by the switch from a PSTN circuit to a digital one. Often, he said customers don’t understand why this is happening and they assume that because they have a lift alarm and a telephone line there shouldn’t be a problem.
“A lift alarm system may be fully compliant with standards and regulations, and have been working fine for the last 10 years, but when it’s moved from a PSTN line to a digital line there can be some fundamental mismatches that occur between systems,” said Davies.
“There’s an immediate concern around signalling and the ability of a digital line to support analogue signalling.
“Then, in terms of analogue telephone adaptor devices being used, some of them are just not up to the job. Over-arching all of that is the ongoing concern about power resilience in digital lines – if the mains power fails then the digital line fails, and that can result in people getting trapped in lifts and being unable to call for help, even on their mobile.”
Longevity issues
The other issue with temporary analogue support, said Davies, is how long the customer will be able to use it for. That is particularly important, he said, when they are looking at how much they will have to invest in the technology.
“People may not initially have a concern on day one when they first take the device out of the box and install it,” said Davies. “But it’s after that where the problems arise – the battery has only got a certain lifetime, so someone has to be responsible for knowing what its status is and charging it.”
Then there is the need for ongoing maintenance of digital lines – which was never needed previously for PSTN lines – said Davies.
That requires conducting regular in-person visual inspections, meaning buildings owners and facilities managers have to employ permanent staff and have them on-site at all times, he said. Even then, he said that there are still countless examples of inspections not being carried out.
Everyone together
To get ready for the switchover, Davies recommends that customers order their lines, understand what functions they are performing, and which circuits serve the lift alarms.
They also need to engage with their communications provider and lift maintenance provider to establish what equipment they already have and its compatibility with the new digital line, and, where necessary, to bring in any devices that will support the analogue signalling required, as well as considering the new solution’s power resilience, management requirements and longevity.
Added to that, he said they need to have an ongoing managed service to ensure the technology continues to work properly.
Davies also wants to see greater support for the campaign from government and Ofcom in order to raise awareness of the switch-off.
While he has had interactions with different government departments, he said that a more joined-up approach is required, not just within government, but also with industry and the regulator.
“I have been working on the switchover since 2018 and I’m still talking to people about it today,” said Davies. “That just goes to show how far we have
to go.”
This interview was included in our January 2025 print issue. You can read the magazine in full here.