The public switched telephone network, or PSTN is the world's collection of interconnected voice-oriented public telephone networks. The system has been in widespread use since the late 1800s, and although most people associate the PSTN with copper wiring, also referred to as Plain Old Telephone System (POTS), modern PSTN infrastructure also uses fiber optic cables.

However, while all those miles of copper cables and telephone wires have given businesses the ability to talk to each other over landlines for generations, the rise of globalization, digitalization, and IP-based technologies have signaled the coming end of the PSTN era. Analog network technology is too expensive and difficult to maintain, and beyond that, it is simply incompatible with the varied demands of modern IP voice and data communications, both landline and mobile. A total switch-off of the traditional PSTN is expected by 2025 at the latest.

Because of this impending switch, many companies worldwide are seeking out ways to efficiently migrate to Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) technology using PSTN replacement services that allow them to keep pace with their customers and not be left behind by their competition.

Recently, Kandy Communications, a global leader in secure and intelligent cloud communications, announced it is now offering full PSTN replacement services in Brazil and China, bringing the total number of countries serviced by Kandy (News - Alert)'s voice network to 40.

"Increasingly, businesses around the world need to connect distributed workforces and customers to improve communications and collaboration for better engagement and more efficient business processes," said Chuck Canton, President of Kandy. "With the addition of Brazil and China, we continue to expand the reach of our first-class telephony services to both local and global customers as they grow their footprint."

With the latest expansion to Brazil and China, Kandy now offers fully-featured telephony services in countries that account for 78 percent of the world's Gross Domestic Product (GDP)*. The services provided include local dial tone, local numbers, local number porting, domestic calling, local toll-free, local emergency services, and Lawful Intercept. Furthermore, Kandy offers Inbound DID services in 87 countries and Toll-free services in 105 countries that represent almost 90 percent of global GDP.

In total, Kandy PSTN Replacement Services now cover Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Guam, Hong Kong, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Romania, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and the United States.

Kandy's full PSTN replacement services allow businesses to seamlessly migrate their telephony networks to cloud-based solutions that include UCaaS, CCaaS, CPaaS, and Microsoft (News - Alert) Teams Direct Routing and normalize mixed telephony environments. To provide these full PSTN replacement services in a country, Kandy ensures compliance with local regulations, local licensing and registrations, local entities where needed, local taxation, specific criteria for in-country infrastructure, including regular audits, local interconnects, and testing with local carriers to make it easy for its customers to deploy service.

"This expansion reinforces Kandy's position as a global white-label cloud communications solution provider for our many channel partners, service providers, and large enterprise customers," Canton explained. "We are excited to grow our portfolio of countries, expanding access to information for customers around the world."