British businesses could face serious issues from the retirement of the century-old copper landline network - which is still used in fire alarms, burglar alarms and security systems in commercial buildings.
It’s estimated that 180,000 of the 300,000 lifts in the UK run on copper lines and the network is also showing its age, with outages increasing by a fifth over the past year.
In the UK, landlines are set to be retired by 2027, but BT is already warning businesses to ditch copper for "machine-to-machine" communications by 2025 to avoid issues. The US has deregulated the provision of copper lines, so that businesses can face huge costs and fines if they fail to transition to newer technologies or maintain legacy copper infrastructure to meet regulatory and service requirements.
Here in Britain, BT Group is working with the Government to migrate customers off the legacy copper-wire Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) to an all-IP network.
Since September 2023, there have been no new connections to PSTN or IDSN networks, and BT is working to test devices such as lift lines and fire alarms at its Adastral Park R&D centre near Ipswich.
Businesses run the risk of disconnection if they are "asleep at the wheel" and fail to check the compatibility of technology - in particular "edge use cases" where there may not be broadband available.
These outlying use cases that may cause issues include lift lines, alarm lines, ATMs, door entry systems, CCTV and business continuity systems.
Later this year, BT will offer a pre-digital phone line service that emulates copper wire as a temporary solution, which will launch later this year, but not all analogue equipment will be compatible.
BT is encouraging businesses to check their equipment and attempt to switch by 2025, rather than the 2027 deadline, to avoid problems.
Steve Blackshaw, IP Migrations Director, BT Business told The Stack: “The UK's analogue copper phone network is no longer fit for an internet-centric world – it’s legacy technology, increasingly prone to faults and can’t meet the demands of modern businesses.
"Our ask of business customers is simple – work with us to review your technology estate, test your devices and switch to newer, more reliable networks by the end of 2025."
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Lessons from America
The Stack spoke to Jeff Stott, SVP Head of Technology at Extra Space Storage, the largest operator of self-storage facilities in the US with 3,500 properties with 164 million square feet of rentable space, who recently switched from old-fashioned lines.
In the US, the situation around copper wire has developed rapidly after the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) allowed carriers to close copper feeder facilities.
Stott said: "We were using copper analogue because fire panels and elevators require it, and it's really expensive to retrofit and buy more modern equipment. We started hearing about deregulation of these types of lines in the US, where the bigger carriers weren't going to be required to maintain this infrastructure any more."
When making the switch, businesses can face sudden costs including increased line rentals - or find themselves no longer conforming to fire regulations.
Every fire alarm, burglar alarm and elevator line in their facilities was landline-dependent and faced a risk of becoming unsupported and, presumably, unsafe.
Stott said: "It was becoming an ageing, brittle infrastructure. These are powering devices for us that are life-saving in terms of fire panels and alarms.
"Local laws require us to have a fire alarm system or fire suppression systems, and all of that equipment was kind of built off older technology. It's imperative these things continue to work, but the infrastructure that it rides on is going away."
Switching over to a digital replacement was a "tough project", Stott admits.
He says: "It's logistically challenging because you have to have a local installer who also has to coordinate with the fire suppression system, because when you're switching over, they need to, like, retest or re-certify that these things are still working."
The problem is widespread, especially in the commercial real estate business - and some business owners are "not paying attention", he believes.
He adds: "My advice would be to start sooner than later. You don’t want to be in a situation where you find that your line needs to be repaired."
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Options for replacing copper wire
The reason businesses face issues is that while there are many solutions for voice lines, options for machine-to-machine or IoT communication are limited, particularly in areas with little or no broadband coverage.
The effects on businesses can be damaging, warns Max Silber, Vice President of Mobility & IoT at MetTel, who offers copper wire replacement solutions based on digital boxes which can be plugged into equipment.
The company is seeing particular demand from retail, healthcare, and government sectors in both the UK and US.
Silber says: "We get the panic call that says, “I just got notice. I have two weeks left. I'm going to lose connectivity in 1000 locations all over, can you help me?
"We have had customers reach out and say that we've never gone through the transformation process. We just had the fire inspector come here basically a week ago and fine us. And those fines were starting to amount to somewhere around $10,000 a week. So these fines can essentially bankrupt an IT budget in a matter of 30 or 60 days."
Silber says that the company has dealt with healthcare organisations who find they can’t open up clinics due to not having the right certificates for fire safety.
His company is getting increasing numbers of calls from people whose connections stop working when it rains - highlighting the unreliability of copper technology.
He adds: "The way I try to explain it is somebody buried a copper cable with some plastic around it in the ground about 50 years ago, and over time, that plastic shielding evaporated.
"So now, every time it rains and water seeps into the ground and touches that copper line that's carrying a low voltage current, it has a fail safe system in it that it basically stops transmitting as soon as it has water. Obviously we don't want to electrocute people, even though it's very low voltage.
‘The lack of reliability of this ageing technology that isn't really being invested in at all anymore, we're really just keeping it around until it's completely decommissioned or breaks down. That's not really a long term viable solution for a large enterprise that has a massive investment in brick and mortar."
