Next-gen issues for Telecom

More than a million fax machines, medical and burglar alarms, eftpos terminals and Sky Television set-top boxes may need to be scrapped or modified as Telecom switches to its "next-generation" network to handle phone calls.

The ageing Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN)

Telecom is due to turn off the ageing Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) and migrate customers to internet telephony (VoIP) in stages between 2012 and 2020.

However, the company asked to delay the transition after trials with 150 customers showed a myriad of devices with low-speed modems would not work in the new era of internet telephony.

The request formed part of the fourth variation to its operational separation undertakings which was approved by Communications Minister Steven Joyce earlier this month.

"The undertakings currently assume the replacement of all PSTN lines with VoIP services, but it may be that for some customers, that isn't the optimal path."

Auckland telecommunications company Worldxchange, which provides about 50,000 customers with internet telephony over copper and via fibre in 30 new subdivisions, has encountered the same problem.

Its MySkyHDi boxes would communicate via an Ethernet port "eradicating the problem" and Sky was working on a solution for its "legacy boxes", which make up three-quarters of its installed base. The details were "commercially-sensitive".

Given Telecom is obliged to switch 300,000 customers to VoIP by December 2012, Mr Clarkin said it needed to "get out now" and start educating customers. "Telecom Group from a technology perspective probably has its head in the sand."

An Economic Development Ministry official said Telecom could get around the problem by offering customers the option of a switched-circuit line to their telephone exchange, where their calls would be transferred to the next-gen network, but this could cause other problems and negate some of the benefits of the switch to VoIP.

The next-gen network

The next-gen network would end reliance on ageing NEC switching equipment that underpins the PSTN and should put all telecommunications service providers on an equal footing selling phone services.

As well as having a shared phone number for a home phone, family members could each be allocated their own individual number so they could choose, for example, to redirect certain calls to another landline, mobile or to voice mail.