The landline is going out of fashion.
A recent survey showed 67.2% would get rid of their landline if it wasn’t still needed for broadband.
What is SOGEA?
Openreach has announced the introduction of SOGEA (Single Order Generic Ethernet Access). This will make it possible to buy a hybrid fibre FTTC (Fibre-to-the-Cabinet) cable line without phone service.
The process of implementing SOGEA has been slow but Openreach expects that the service could be large-scale pilot size by early 2019. Going even further BT aims to make all traditional landlines extinct by 2025.
This is an exciting time as landline and broadband will be forced to be treated as separate entities. Finally giving businesses and consumers a choice.
More importantly, the UK will finally be catching up to other countries such as Canada and parts of Europe who already don’t require landline with fibre.
What does this mean for UK businesses?
Despite Mark Jackson of IS Preview thinking that there won’t be much of a difference on the overall price of broadband, I believe this will be the most disruptive change in the small business Telecoms market since the introduction of affordable, high-speed FTTC services.
SOGEA has the potential to bring a massive shakeup to telecommunications in the UK and one that we cannot ignore. We will see various companies propelled into the 21st century and not having to rely on phones unsuitable for the needs of business.
Perhaps what’s most exciting about this roll-out is the impact it’ll have on VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) and the improvements to fibre broadband. FTTC and super fast fibre broadband are thought to be the future of the internet.
What does this mean for bOnline customers?
SOGEA will revolutionise the way we provide our telecoms services encouraging us to provide a far better fibre broadband and calls service at half the price of the current ADSL and calls services.
Currently, bOnline already provide alternatives to landline such as cloud-based, VoIP phone systems. VoIP delivers secure, hosted phone functionality over the internet with 40+ features.
By removing line rental, we will be able to offer huge discounts to our customers on FTTC 40, 55 and 80Mbs speeds with a state-of-the-art IP based phone service (ie. VoIP).
Unlike the days of poor call quality with the likes of Skype, a business VoIP phone service like bOnline’s cloud phones will have crystal clear call quality over a business-grade IP network. Besides very low call costs, VoIP will also transform a fixed phone number into services that are available through your mobile. Making your business accessible from anywhere and on any device.
Moving on, VoIP will be able to provide small businesses better productivity often reserved for enterprise businesses such as call conferencing, call forwarding and cheaper international calls. Along with an additional voice channel making the process a lot simpler for our consumers.
Final Thoughts
I find SOGEA to be an important and necessary feature for broadband. While it is disappointing that it will take potentially another seven years for this to be fully implemented small business should definitely look forward to seeing how this will lead to more technological advancements.
SOGEA has the potential of changing the way a small business is run while simultaneously providing convenience and big savings for business owners.
That’s a reality we should all be excited by.
