What is it about?
Changes to the UK's telecoms infrastructure put a lot of automated equipment under threat. The withdrawal of analogue signals over the old copper lines risks leaving healthcare practices with 'mission critical' equipment which will no longer work. This article seeks to alert practitioners to the dangers.
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Why is it important?
Busy practice managers are used to relying on burglar alarms, IT backups and care lines being reliable, 'always on' and ready to operate when needed. Even -- sometimes especially -- in the case of a mains power cut. A lot of existing equipment was specified to operate on the copper network's 48Volt DC power output, supplied from the exchange rather than the mains. With the move to 'all-IP' networks over high speed fibre, new equipment and dedicated emergency power supplies need to be specified. Before the old network its retired and legacy equipment no longer works.
Perspectives
As business managers, we are naturally used to utilities simply 'being there', reliably available. BT's decisions to retire the old copper network takes a reliable analogue option off the table -- as dramatic and revolutionary, in its way, as the switch from analogue to digital TV. But neither government nor the regulator is alerting businesses and public servants to the risks. BJHCM, at least, has taken the issue seriously on behalf of its readers.
Chris Pateman
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Is the NHS ready for the UK's copper network to be switched off?, British Journal of Healthcare Management, April 2024, Mark Allen Group,
DOI: 10.12968/bjhc.2024.0039.
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