BT's plans to withdraw PSTN and ISDN lines in 2025 could severely affect services provided by councils in England and Wales, according to cloud and managed services company Maintel. 

A Freedom of Information request conducted by the company revealed that 23 of the 40 councils across England and Wales that responded (56 per cent) have no strategy in place for the withdrawal of the networks. In London, the number rises to 70 per cent. 

In 2015, BT announced the withdrawal of Wholesale Line Rental (WLR), Public Switch Telephone Network (PSTN) and Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) services, marking the biggest change in 30 years to the UK's telecoms industry. 

First installed in the UK in the 1980s, the equipment used for the PSTN network is becoming less reliable, as well as harder and more expensive to maintain. As part of the switch, customers will be switched over to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and full-fibre technologies, which...