Openreach is already well underway with turning off their ISDN and PSTN services, so could the traditional office desk phone be the next thing to become obsolete?
In the past few years, we have seen the adoption of remote working, online meetings and the increased use of advanced features VoIP Business Telephone Systems provide for businesses.
Will users still require a physical phone on their desks by 2030?
Pandemic years propelled communication methods forward, with colleagues and customers accepting and adopting the use of desktop and mobile applications, making it hard to see a long-term future for an office desk phone.
The recent global chip shortage and the increased cost of manufacturing the equipment, has pushed vendors to inflate the price of office desk phones for end users, meaning it is starting to seem an expensive luxury rather than an essential business tool.
What alternative will replace the physical phone?
With a simple software application, that can be downloaded in seconds, and with the use of a USB headset or speakerphone, your office computer or laptop can operate as your office phone with the power of VoIP.
Users with Business Mobile Phones, can download a mobile application from the Apple App store or Google Play store, log in, and use their business mobile phone as their office extension. They can still transfer calls and operate as they would have from their office desk phones.
Perhaps a few users will hold on to their office desk phones for as long as they can, but it is hard to imagine that traditional office desk phones will be a feature of an employee’s desk in the next decade.
Will this be good for businesses?
Undoubtedly yes! At a time when many businesses are seeing costs across their business rise, a VoIP Phones extension, being deployed as a software application, can save around 80% on hardware costs for businesses.
The days of leasing business telephone systems with office desk phones over 36 or 60 months appear to be a thing of the past.
VoIP phones used as software applications with USB headsets or speakerphones, have a more affordable price point for outright purchase for businesses, which can also reduce ongoing costs and business expenditure.
Less hardware has environmental benefits too!
Less business telephone systems with office desk phones and more customers using software application only VoIP Phones, would mean fewer devices a business must upgrade as they become out of date or discontinued by manufacturers.
It means less waste of electrical or electronic equipment (WEEE) that the business must dispose of or recycle correctly.
Whilst VoIP Phones, business telephone systems or office desk phones may not consume lots of power in an office, reducing the number of physical devices that require electricity from your office can only help towards reducing your business’s energy consumption.