BT Wholesale’s hosted communications service (WHC) will handle 4,000 lines for IDNet, offering its customers a “comprehensive unified communications solution to enhance remote and mobile working for the modern and distributed workforce”.
The five-year project is scheduled for completion ahead of the UK’s 2025 digital switchover.
Gavin Jones, BT Wholesale’s channel sales director, said: “This is an important signal to the industry that established and forward-focused communication providers like IDNet are selecting BT Wholesale to migrate their analogue telephone lines ahead of the closure of the current analogue PSTN network in 2025.
“There is still some way to go before the nation is fully ready for the switch-off and the transition to all-IP, but capabilities like BT’s WHC service will enable our channel partners to deliver a key IP solution to their customers to support their digital transformation journeys. We’re excited to extend our partnership with IDNet and look forward to working together to future-proof businesses with the best digital connectivity solutions,” Jones added.
IDNet and BT Wholesale have been collaborating for more than 20 years and together also offer single line VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol). For this migration project, IDNet said it would migrate the connections over to the WHC service with “bespoke licenses and targets to hit over the five-year project”.
BT’s WHC solution is described by the telco as an umbrella offering for channel partners to create a hybrid estate using Hosted Centrex and SIP Trunking. The Unified Communications solution includes voice calling, instant messaging, audio conferencing, call analytics and advanced call control tools.
Steve Waters, head of business development at IDNet, said: “We knew that we had to get ahead of the game and be ready for the switchover. Having worked with BT Wholesale previously, we knew the services and solutions offered would be best-suited for our products and customers. By acting quickly with BT Wholesale, we can ensure we stay one step ahead and prevent any base erosion to our business whilst providing new digital solutions.”
