TalkTalk Wholesale Services is harnessing its unique MPF technology to offer resellers a seamless one-step transition to full fibre when FTTP becomes available. Here, Managing Director Tom O’Hagan explains how the solution is tailor-made for channel partners looking to meet the digital requirements of the 2025 PSTN switch off without the move to SoGEA.
Everything we read in the sector at the moment is warning us that stop-sell is happening this September and that, in 18 months time, WLR and PSTN services will be retired. This means that any business still relying on those services will be left behind. Eighteen months is a short window for resellers to transition their services to a new product – and find the money to do so. Yet the narrative is that we must move away from these services, to SoGEA, or to FTTP, as soon as possible.
But, with FTTP not readily available in the majority of business addresses, many are faced with a 2-step approach to reaching a future fibre solution in the years to come.
Making the switch to SoGEA and then to FTTP requires implementing new hardware for both technologies, so it isn’t a seamless, straightforward process. It’s also expensive to do which, in a cost-of-living crisis, raises concern for those businesses who don’t want or have the money to spend implementing a brand-new IP solution, to then spend more money making the switch to FTTP when it becomes available later.
Bridging the FTTP provisioning gap
While FTTP will be the final destination for everyone operating in this market, there needs to be a product that fills the gap in between, that doesn’t require a vast amount of capital to implement and cause a vast amount of disruption to telecoms businesses.
At TalkTalk Wholesale Services, we believe our MPF technology does just that.
As TalkTalk is a local loop unbundler, we can offer MPF services in 3000 local exchanges across the UK. While these services are copper based, they are not subject to the stop-sell timelines, so we can continue to connect our customers to those exchanges and deliver broadband and voice services – including TDM voice and IP voice – on top.
We can also migrate businesses on WLR and PSTN services to MPF with minimal disruption to their current operations and without the need for new CPE and technology. In doing so, they are not working to the WLR stop-sell timelines, and have the option to migrate their customers to a future fibre solution as, and when they are ready, in just one step. What’s more, TalkTalk Wholesale Services can help them do that.
What are the benefits of switching to MPF technology with TalkTalk Wholesale Services?
Our approach to stop-sell helps ease the pressure on telecoms businesses by giving them another option. We have SoGEA, and sometimes it is absolutely the right answer, but if you move to SoGEA, you’re required to move to an all-IP world which means changing the hardware at a customer’s site to support it. Then, at some point in the future, changing that connection a second time to support an FTTP connection. So it requires businesses to implement new services twice, which is incredibly disruptive and not without overheads.
With us, you can switch to our MPF technology seamlessly, run your preferred voice services over it using the same hardware you currently have, and then, when you’re ready, or when your customer’s ready, we’ll help you move to FTTP, in one step – not two.
We live in a world where borrowing is expensive and businesses might not want to spend money on a brand-new IP solution. We can help businesses overcome that cost barrier.
How do I switch to MPF?
We’ve already invested in the technology, so we’re unique in the capability that we offer. Switching to MPF is such an easy thing for customers to do because it requires no additional hardware. Openreach simply make the switch at the exchange with minimal disruption to services; it’s a no-brainer, because it removes the cliff edge that’s being driven by the WLR stop-sell.
Our solution offers partners more time to get their customers where they need to go, at a fraction of the price. It’s a simpler, more efficient journey compared to those being proposed in the market, that also reduces a lot of the worry businesses have today. The doom-laden messages forcing companies to move to SoGEA as soon as possible simply aren’t right; and our solution buys you time to take the best path for you.
I’m not saying don’t get off WLR and PSTN lines. You can get off that network, just come on ours for an easier ride.