Companies that built and relied on a system underpinned by PSTN and ISDN technology must prepare for the fact that these systems will no longer be operational for many of them by the end of the decade.
Indeed, of the 225 countries and territories covered by TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database, only 17 had higher PSTN penetration rates at the end of 2024 than they did in 2005. Of the other 208, 161 experienced double-digit percentage reductions during that time.
Therefore, the number of migrations we are about to witness from analog to digital is immense. Yet this once-in-a-generation transformation of a company’s communication infrastructure needs to be undertaken carefully.
That’s because this migration is uniquely difficult due to its all-encompassing impact. In many organizations, PSTN lines have been the “quiet backbone” of company communication infrastructure for decades—connecting not only desk phones but also alarms, lifts, door entry systems, fax machines, payment terminals, and even critical safety functions.
Thus, these services cannot simply be unplugged and replaced overnight. Moving to IP systems means unpicking years of hidden dependencies while ensuring continuity of these critical services during migration.
Although this change represents a challenge, the necessity of the shift also opens doors: IP-based networks enable real-time data integration, seamless remote management, and interoperability with modern collaboration tools—capabilities that analog systems were never designed to support.
In other words, organizations are not just being forced off legacy infrastructure; they are being given the opportunity to rethink how their new communication infrastructure can better serve them.
Getting this wrong risks downtime, regulatory breaches, or even public safety consequences. However, getting it right creates a resilient, scalable, and future-ready communications foundation—one that not only replaces legacy systems but also unlocks new capabilities for efficiency and growth.
Planning for a Successful Migration
Effective migration from analog to IP infrastructure requires systematic planning that addresses both technical requirements and operational continuity. Therefore, the first step should be a comprehensive assessment of what you are working with.
As Ryan Zoehner, CEO of Algo, emphasizes: “Get that audit, understand what you have, know what needs to go from there.”
Algo conducts an audit function evaluation process that encompasses equipment inventories, communication workflow mapping, system integration requirements, and identification of services that require continuous operation during transition periods.
This allows them to understand exactly what the customers’ communication system looks like and know exactly what needs to be brought over.
Then, Algo’s assessment phase follows. This reveals the interconnected nature of modern communication infrastructure, showing how systems work together when integrated. For instance, emergency notification systems may depend on specific relay configurations, UC platforms may require particular API connections, and building management systems often use communication protocols that span multiple technology generations.
Understanding these relationships gives organizations confidence that system functionality will remain intact with this new system once crucial elements have been bridged or upgraded.
Beyond earmarking key pieces of equipment for operational continuity or ensuring compatibility post migration, another key element is a backup plan. Migrating over your whole system can be daunting, and any problem can cause severe delays.
Therefore, Algo implements strategies that coordinate the backup of systems to ensure business continuity when migrating.
For Mike Greenwood, Business Development Manager at Algo, this begins with identifying priorities: “What is critical when it comes to doing any form of migration? Let’s analyze what’s critical and then make sure that we’ve got some backups in place.”
After this identification, Algo solutions extend to support migrations with built-in failover and backup strategies.
This methodical approach enables organizations to prioritize critical communication services and test new systems in controlled stages, reducing risk and downtime. Algo’s technology also features local redundancy capabilities, such as emergency alerting systems that remain operational even if the wider unified communications platform experiences issues, providing an essential safety net during transition.
Highlighting Algo’s failsafe’s capabilities, Greenwood explains that “as long as the local network is functioning, their products can still deliver paging, alerts, and notifications—even if the broader UC platform has gone down.”
Another part of these backup and failover strategy sees Algo adopting a phased deployment, allowing some systems to remain functional while others are migrated.
“We don’t have to do everything in one fell swoop,” Greenwood says. “Ultimately, we can do a migration step by step, do some of the less challenging areas first. That builds confidence in the organization.”
This focus on essential services provides the framework for implementation planning that offers a level of critical business functions during the migration process.
Laying Foundations for the Future
Following this comprehensive audit, it is important that companies begin to build solutions that last beyond just the initial migration. This is what Algo dubs the design phase and it’s crucial for setting companies’ infrastructure up for the future.
Zoehner says here it is crucial to avoid building this based on proprietary solutions: “If you end up on a platform where you’ve built everything around something proprietary, something so custom, so unique, you can’t evolve as the business evolves.”
As a result, Algo’s IP endpoints and system solutions are open standard. This means that companies can add, remove or change their equipment as and when they wish.
For Zoehner, “organizations that select open standard technologies are better future-proofing themselves because they can evolve with the industry.”
Proprietary or highly customized systems create lock-in, making it difficult to adapt as needs evolve. Open standards instead provide the interoperability needed to plug into emerging technologies, integrate across vendors, and extend system lifespans.
Such concepts of flexibility, Zoehner argues, should also extend to the migrations themselves. “Don’t be forced into thinking that you must take everything 100% IP because you’re going down some migration,” he says.
Algo offers hybrid or bridging solutions that allow companies to leverage the cost of some of their preexisting investments but still provide solutions that can withstand the cut off. This acknowledges that organizations have varying requirements across different facilities and functions, and hybrid can help them work around that.
Managing Post Migration
Beyond the technical elements of migration, managing implementation post migration is essential to ensure both user familiarity and upkeep of your new system.
Algo offers device management tools so that companies can check their endpoints are working post-migration and beyond.
Yet, monitoring capabilities will mean little if staff have not been adequately trained on the new system. For Greenwood, lack of staff training comes at a great cost to companies: “It’s one of the top reasons why projects either succeed or stall after go-lives.”
Modern IP-based communication systems introduce different user interfaces and operational procedures, requiring structured training programs that address basic operation, emergency protocols, and integration workflows.
Organizations that implement comprehensive change management help users adapt to new communication methods while maintaining productivity throughout the transition.
Choosing Partners and Future-Proofing Investments
As much as these strategies help companies navigate to new IP solutions, having an experienced partner can significantly influence whether organizations realize the full potential of IP migration or simply replace one set of constraints with another.
The best partners simplify the complexity of the process to deliver the capabilities companies are seeking. As Zoehner summarizes: “Good vendors will make it piecemeal. They’ll simplify it. They won’t complicate it.”
Algo breaks migration into these manageable stages, with each step reinforcing stability, to ensure everything is accounted for and built to last.
If your organization is preparing to migrate from analog to IP, now is the time to start laying careful groundwork. Audit your infrastructure, establish priorities, and choose a partner like Algo who will provide the expertise and reliability your company needs to build a stronger communication foundation.
