It was four years ago when Telstra announced it would be exiting the ISDN network by mid-2022. To date 9,600 customers with 90,000 services have been migrated. However 2,400 customers with 10,000 services between them still remain on the soon to be decommissioned network.
| 31 May 2022 | Final Exit Date for ISDN2, ISDN2 Enhanced, ISDN 10/20/30 |
| 31 August 2022 | Final Exit Date for DDS Fastway, Megalink, and Frame Relay |
The most relevant deadline is the 31 May 2022 date as this is when the majority of customers will be impacted with ISDN 10/20/30 lines being the most common of those still in circulation.
The August deadline is for less common data-only services which have been built on ISDN infrastructure.
If you are unsure whether you have any remaining ISDN lines, check your Telstra bill where they will show as a line item being billed.
You should also be able to see on your bill if the ISDN line is active or inactive i.e. if it is being used to make voice calls or transfer data.
If the ISDN line is inactive, it is best to proactively disconnect the service rather than waiting for the ISDN shutdown. This will ensure that your business is no longer being billed for the line(s). MobileCorp can manage this activity on behalf of Telstra customers.
Telstra has been posting warning notification letters to impacted customers at intervals over the past 48 months. If it is likely these letters have not been received by the business, please check your bill.
If your business still has active ISDN lines, you will need to take immediate action to invest in a different technology before the ISDN network is dismantled and your services disconnected.
It will typically take between six weeks and six months to migrate, so there is no time to waste.
5 Step Checklist
Your ISDN services will be discontinued as the network equipment is physically removed from the Telstra Exchange. When this occurs you will no longer be able to make or receive calls.
You will have received postal reminders at intervals over the past 24 months that this is occurring.
It could be. NBN replaced ADSL, so it is possible that ISDN lines in play may have been missed during a migration to NBN.
After reviewing your Telstra bill and discovering you still have active ISDN lines, you will need to ascertain how/where the line is being used.
Lines that commonly get missed when migrating include
You will be able to keep your existing phone number(s) if you migrate to a new technology before being disconnected.
If your business is disconnected, you will lose your telephone number...and there is no way to retrieve your number.
Should this occur, your existing numbers will need to be diverted to a mobile or new number. This works okay for voice but can be very expensive and unreliable for data consumption.
Typically the ongoing monthly costs for a SIP solution are around half the cost of existing ISDN plans.
Meanwhile, the business benefits offered by SIP are significant, allowing for remote seamless working, scalability of users, and business continuity.
Moving to cloud-based telephony also negates the need for expensive handsets or PABX hardware.
Telstra has a range of IP, Ethernet and Unified Communications solutions to replace legacy ISDN products.
What will best fit your business will depends what the ISDN lines were being used for and the business outcomes required.
Most businesses will migrate to a SIP product and/or NBN for VOIP that connects to a PABX, or to a cloud-hosted telephony solution that removes the need for ongoing maintenance and support of a physical environment.
Both solutions will result in higher quality signals, faster speed, and improved features to support remote working, scalability, security, reliability, and it also costs less than ISDN.
The key word here is RAPID.
One of the biggest difficulties organisations have faced in moving off ISDN to NBN and other solutions over the past two years, has been the length of the migration window.
Typically it has taken months to complete a migration project with significant delays due to misalignment between NBN and carriers like Telstra. When an organisation has more than 1-2 sites, the complexity is magnified and delays exacerbated.
MobileCorp is an Accredited Telstra Data +IP Partner and can provide you with a migration transition that can deliver you a rapid migration resulting in enhanced business capability, often at a lower cost.
We can manage a complex port in 6-8 weeks and a simple port in 2 weeks.
We can also set up a hosted telephony system in 5 days due to our partnership with Access4, and with diversions in place can still present your existing numbers until the ports take place.
Some Telstra Enterprise Partners – like MobileCorp – offer a managed ISDN migration product.
This service is particularly popular with enterprise and large business who have multiple sites to migrate and don’t want their IT resource to be monopolised by a time-consuming process which takes them away from their core responsibilities.
It is also popular with SMBs who have limited in-house IT resource and no time to spend on the phone to the various parties.
MobileCorp ISDN managed migration inclusions
MobileCorp will manage the entire project driving to a successful completion with minimal input required from the business. Areas of accountability include the following:
Transitioning from ISDN to a new system is not always complex, but it is always time-consuming.
It pays to have an experienced project manager as there are multiple ‘trip points’ throughout the process.
MobileCorp’s managed migration lets you relax and rely on us to remove all of the risk and deliver a smooth hassle-free shift without disruption or demands on the business.
Some other benefits include:
MobileCorp is an enterprise ICT solutions company with a mission to deliver our customers a communications technology edge. We provide Managed Mobility Services, Enterprise Mobility Management, Complex Data and IP Networks, and Unified Communication solutions. We have a proven track record providing managed services for Australian enterprise and business, and we are a Telstra Platinum Partner.