Your phones go where your team goes.

By 31 January 2027. BT Group is retiring the UK’s old analogue phone network (the PSTN), and ISDN lines go with it. Government guidance asks businesses to check every device that relies on a phone line, because each one has to be moved or upgraded by then.

Openreach has said it won’t simply cut lines off when the old network closes. Lines still on it can be moved onto its emergency voice-only access service (EVAc), which Openreach itself calls “temporary, limited and more expensive than modern alternatives”. It can’t be ordered in advance. It keeps essential calls going while you move, and it isn’t built to run a business on.

Fire and security alarms, card payment terminals that dial out, lift emergency phones and door entry systems can all rely on a phone line. A phone audit, which we can add to your IT audit, lists what uses your lines, and we work with your other suppliers, such as your alarm company, so you know what each device needs before the old line goes.

We can set up a new phone system in less than a week. What takes time is the planning: who answers which calls, your ring groups and how calls are routed. In our experience the slowest part is moving your numbers from your old provider, known as number porting. It depends on them and on the type of number you have, and it often takes longer than anyone would like. That’s why it pays to start well before 31 January 2027.

Yes. UK rules let you take your numbers with you when you change provider, and we move them across as part of your migration. Your customers ring the same numbers as before.

They stay yours. The same UK rules that let you bring your numbers to us let you take them with you.

Not with us. Watch out for phone providers that ask you to sign another five-year deal when you make a change two years into your existing contract. With Jera there are no long phone contracts: adding lines, removing them or putting new technology to work doesn’t restart anything.

Our phone system is priced per line, which is usually one for each person, on a desk handset or an app on their mobile or computer. Calls to UK landlines and mobiles are included, under a fair usage policy. International and premium-rate numbers aren’t included. Microsoft Teams Phone is a Microsoft licence, so it’s added on top, like your other Microsoft licences. You see the full cost in your migration plan before you sign anything.

We support four: Microsoft Teams Phone, 3CX and two UK cloud phone systems. If your team already works in Teams, calling in Teams often makes most sense. If you want call-centre features, WhatsApp or texts alongside your calls, another may suit you better. We recommend one in your migration plan and explain why. Whichever you choose, we set it up, look after it and keep it up to date as part of your IT.

Yes, in two ways. Your phones can run in Teams itself, with Microsoft’s Teams Phone, or your phone system can connect to Teams so business calls ring there too. Teams Phone is a Microsoft licence, so it’s billed like your other Microsoft licences.

No. We’re an IT management company that looks after your whole IT estate, not a telecoms company. If telephones are all you want, a telecoms provider can do it very cheaply, though they tend to struggle to make your phones work with everything else. It comes down to the business model. Theirs is transactional: sign a contract, deliver it, and it stays the same until they see you again in five years. Ours is built on the relationship and designed to change as your business does. If you need flexibility, phones that work with the rest of your IT and one place to take problems, speak to us.

Your phones now run over your internet connection, so calls in the office stop when it does. That’s the trade-off for phones that work anywhere, and it’s why a reliable connection matters more than it used to. The backup is the phone app on your mobile: your team can keep taking calls on it, even if they don’t use it day to day. It’s great for hybrid workers, too.

Yes. Our AI Receptionist Agent answers your calls and web enquiries, day and night. Like every Jera agent, it knows when to act, when to ask a person and when to wait. Every agreement includes your first AI agent, built free. You pay only for the AI tokens it uses. It tells callers they’re speaking to an AI, as current guidance recommends. When it passes a caller on to a mobile or another number, that’s a forwarded call, and calls to UK landlines and mobiles are included in our services, so it usually costs nothing extra. Fair usage policies apply.

Every Jera IT support agreement includes one. We build, support and maintain your first agent from our catalogue at no charge; you pay only for the AI tokens it uses, which we estimate before you commit and show you every month. If you are an existing client, talk to us about it.

Yes, when it’s set up and looked after properly. Most problems come from weak settings, such as default passwords and no limit on international calls, rather than from the technology itself. The bigger risk today is people being fooled by faked caller numbers and cloned voices, so agree how you check a caller is genuine before money or access changes hands.

Yes. We have offices in Edinburgh (8 Straiton View, Loanhead, EH20 9QZ), Glasgow (2 West Regent Street, G2 1RW) and Aberdeenshire. Our engineers work remotely first and come on site when that’s what fixes the problem, and site visits are part of your monthly fee.