Switch from ISDN to NBN to save thousands

How Australian Businesses Switch

For many Australian businesses, the time to rethink their phone systems has arrived. With the ISDN switch-off already underway, migrating from legacy ISDN lines to NBN-based VoIP (or SIP) can deliver not only future-proof communications, but significant cost savings. Here’s how it all works — and why now is the moment to act.

What Is ISDN — And Why Is It Being Switched Off?

ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) is a traditional digital telephony standard that carried voice, video, and data over copper telephone line. These telephone lines are sometimes over 50 years old.

But ISDN is now being phased out in Australia: ISDN-2, ISDN-10/20/30, and other similar “special services” are being disconnected. NBN Co explicitly lists ISDN among its Special Services that businesses need to migrate ahead of disconnection. According to the ACCC framework, most ISDN services are scheduled for disconnection by 30 September 2019, and some by 2022.

In short: the infrastructure supporting ISDN is being dismantled, and businesses still relying on it will need to transition.

Why Migrating from ISDN to VoIP (or SIP) Makes Financial Sense

1. Lower Operational Costs

• Business SIP trunks (or cloud-VoIP) typically cost around half of what traditional ISDN lines cost each month.
• Without ISDN line rentals, businesses can dramatically reduce their phone line costs.
• According to some telco brokers, migrating to hosted voice (VoIP/SIP) can deliver 20–70% savings on telecommunications bills, which can amount to thousands of dollars per year for many businesses. 

2. Avoid Rising ISDN Charges

• ISDN’s being shut down, but in the meantime, carriers have raised their connection and conversion fees. As noted by Access4, ISDN connection fees may climb by up to $370 and conversion charges by up to $105. 
• By acting early, businesses can avoid these extra costs — and avoid the risk of having to pay more under time pressure later on.

3. Future-Proof Capabilities

Switching from ISDN to VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) or SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) doesn’t just save money — it unlocks new capabilities:

• Cloud-hosted PBX / UCaaS (Unified Communications as a Service) offers features that ISDN simply can’t: mobile integration, messaging, presence, automated attendants, conferencing, and more. 
• More flexible deployments: businesses can run hybrid systems, where some users remain on the old PBX and some move to a cloud PBX — sharing the same extension numbering, and internal calling still works. 
• Scalability: as your business grows (or contracts), adding or removing lines is much easier and less expensive than with ISDN.

4. Improved Reliability & Disaster Recovery

• Because VoIP runs over the internet, it’s not tied to fixed copper lines. That means in the event of physical damage (e.g. if a road is dug up), your voice traffic can stay working as long as your internet is up. 
• Many VoIP solutions support redundancy — for example, failover to another internet link or to mobile networks — improving resilience compared to traditional ISDN lines.

5. Preserve Your Numbers

With careful planning, you can orchestrate your ISDN to VoIP migration with minimal downtime, as little as 15 minutes.

You can port your existing ISDN phone numbers into Voicee as quickly as 10 business days.

How Much Can You Actually Save?

To put this in perspective:

• Suppose a business spends $400/month across multiple ISDN lines for voice usage.
• If moving to Voicee reduces that by ~50% (a common outcome), that’s $200 saved per month = $2,400 per year.
• Over a 3–5 year horizon, that’s $7,000–$12,000+ in savings (plus the avoided risk of rising ISDN costs or disconnection).

Note: these are illustrative numbers. Your actual savings will depend on your usage, how many lines you have, your call volume, and the VoIP / SIP provider you choose.

What Does the ISDN → NBN / VoIP Migration Process Look Like?

1. Audit Your Current Setup
   • Identify what technology you have now, use the NBN Check address tool to help you find what technology you are using
   • Understand whether you have any current compatible VOIP Hardware (such as Yealink Phones)
2. Upgrade your NBN
   • Speak to your ISP about upgrading your NBN to Fibre
   • ..Or the best service available to your address
3. Sign up to Voicee
   • Voicee takes away the confusion of SIP and VoIP and PBX’s
   • Simply sign up, get a new number and register your SIP Based phones to start accepting calls
4. Forward your current number
   • Now Simply forward your number to your new Voicee Number
   • Your customers will not know anything has changed
   • Start a Port Request
5. Train Staff & Monitor
   • Train your team to use Voicee, it’s designed to be super simple
   • Add as many staff members as you need and even configure their access and permissions
6. Port Out
   • Once your Port Request is complete, Voicee will automatically change your Temporary number to the number you port in.
   • That’s it!

Next Steps

Your next step is to speak with a VoIP Specialist at Voicee! We’ll be happy to review your current bills and discover ways of helping you migrate at the lowest costs.