Nearly Half of UK Businesses Unaware of BT’s Big Switch Off

The Big Switch Off is coming, but shocking research by National Business Communications suggests most UK companies are severely underprepared.

The 2023 survey set out to measure whether or not business owners were aware of the initiative. 19.4% responded with a confident yes, 35.8% had some awareness but didn’t really understand what it meant for their business and a whopping 44.8% were absolutely clueless.

On a positive note, this is marginally better than two years prior. NBC asked the same questions in 2021 with slightly different results – 19.4% said “yes”, 20.8% said “somewhat” and 59.7% said “no”.

What is the Big Switch Off?

If you’re one of the many businesses that haven’t heard of the Big Switch Off, don’t worry because there’s still plenty of time to get your ducks in a row.

Basically, it’s the date when BT Openreach transitions from the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). Traditional landlines will cease to exist, and connections will move from copper wires to digital fibre-based networks.

What do you need to do?

You can’t bury your head in the sand forever. If you fail to prepare and use a landline service, you’ll probably experience severe business disruption come 31st January 2027 (the deadline for the changeover).

Don’t think it’ll affect you? Well, according to the above NBC survey, 62.1% of UK businesses are still using landline phones.

So, what do you have to do in advance? You can either use mobile phones or invest in something like SwiftVOIP. This ground-breaking communication technology supports crystal-clear voice and video calls, instant messaging and file transfers.

Plus, you’ll save plenty of time with the “auto attendants” feature – these clever virtual receptionists route calls based on customised menus.