If you pay attention to the market trends, the copper-based PSTN is on life support. While as recently as 2008, more than 75% of households were talking over the POTS network, the number of US households with landline service now stands just north of 50%.
VoIP and mobile technology have inflicted multiple stab wounds in the more than a century-old landline system. To get a prognosis, Craig Borowski, spoke to three telecom experts who gave perspective on just how quickly the industry is changing.
Who are these experts?
Bill Horne spent 25 years with Verizon, mostly as a network engineer. He now runs a telecommunications consulting group and is the editor of The Telecom Digest.
Ritch Blasi had a 35-year career with AT&T, primarily in mobile, and is now a mobile telecom consultant and senior vice president of Comunicano.
Bayan Towfiq is co-founder and CEO of Flowroute, a telecommunications company helping customers make the shift away from copper.
Borowski published the insights he gained from the panel on Software Advice’s Hello Operator blog. Here’s a snapshot of what he learned:
- Voice is transitioning to data, in a few years, the two will be indistinguishable from a user perspective.
- The BYOD movement is lessening our dependence on landlines by replacing desk phones with mobile devices.
- As copper is decommissioned across the country, carriers are creating efficiencies by interconnecting on the cloud.
- A finite combination of telephone numbers threatens how we view phone numbers altogether.
To get the full diagnosis, read the blog post.
