By Colin Neale, Principal Cellular & LEO IoT Connectivity Specialist at Wireless Logic
BT’s planned Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) switch off, now scheduled for 2027, will significantly impact industries that have relied on traditional telephony services. One of the affected sectors will be health and social care. The switch off necessitates replacing current services with future-proof IoT solutions to ensure uninterrupted and enhanced service delivery.
At the same time, the sunset of 2G/3G is imminent. In the UK, Vodafone communicated its 3G switch off, EE retired its 3G services back in February and Three is targeting the end of 2024. Health and social care providers need to act quickly to avoid major disruption to vital services.
Systems such as remote patient monitoring, emergency alert systems and telehealth services currently rely on PSTN for communication. Theo Blackwell, London’s chief digital officer (CDO) previously expressed concern over the impact of the copper switch-off on adult social care and other critical services. These services are vital for real-time data exchange and emergency responses, making a smooth transition to alternative networks is crucial for continued patient care.
What does this mean for health and social care providers?
Healthcare is an area where reliable and effective communication can make a tangible difference in the lives of patients and improve healthcare outcomes. Healthcare leaders must start planning their migration to alternative technologies as soon as possible, if they haven’t already.
It is a particular challenge for organisations with older or more historic hospital or trust buildings. Installing new technologies in these structures can cause major issues. Health and social care providers will also have thousands, perhaps even tens of thousands, of remote monitoring and other IoT devices deployed on 2G/3G networks that patients and healthcare professionals depend upon and use on a daily basis.
What can healthcare organisations do?
It is important to establish which applications are currently in the field, the networks that they rely upon and whether they are compatible with 4G/5G. Any upcoming or new deployments should also be reviewed as PSTN will not be viable beyond 2027.
Impacted organisations will have to conduct thorough audits to identify affected devices and services and plan timely technology upgrades accordingly. By working more closely with their connectivity provider, they will be able to better understand the options that are available and make more informed decisions when it comes to recalling or installing new devices and exploring their network options.
What connectivity options are available?
There are a number of network technology alternatives health and social care leaders can look to for IoT service continuity, each with its own merits. For example, Low-Power Wide-Area Networks (LPWAN) such as LTE-M and NB-IoT, can support low data throughput and low power use, suitable for example for battery-operated devices.
In this case, it would be perfect for remote patient monitoring services in social care settings or home environments. LTE-M provides similar speed and latency to 3G and can handle higher bandwidth requirements, of up to 1GB of data a month. LPWAN technology offers a viable solution for some applications that require only low power for low data throughput. NB-IoT is suited to lower data (less than 5MB a month), appropriate for smart devices that only need to send and receive small packets of data.
Health and social care providers often manage thousands of IoT applications up and down the country across each of their trusts and hospitals. Staff will need to feel confident they can deploy an alternative technology at scale, and that their chosen connectivity solution can connect seamlessly to multiple networks.
An attractive solution, therefore, could be a multi-network SIM. This enables access to an ecosystem of providers in the country where IoT devices operate to maximise coverage and connectivity resilience. By providing the freedom to roam across multiple networks, this option mitigates variations or outages in any single network to provide greater connectivity assurance.
Satellite LEO connectivity – added resilience
There are some instances where deploying Satellite low Earth orbit (LEO) should be considered. LEO networks provide much-needed redundancy in remote areas that are at risk of outages and backup coverage. This is important for the healthcare sector, as teams are often stretched, managing or monitoring multiple patients at all times. They simply cannot afford for a network outage or cable failure.
Given the growth of high data bandwidth mobile services including MRI scanners, screening & pop-up health centres, solutions could struggle with network demand and capacity. They need to be set up quickly and be able to cope with the demand to deliver patient test results and services quickly and securely were needed and as we look to the future of robotic surgery and more.
It is also important to consider what would happen if critical healthcare systems that rely on network connectivity were to fail for any reason. LEO satellite can serve as a backup, ensuring continuity – especially important for emergency communications and telehealth services.
By employing a reliable LEO satellite solution, healthcare providers will have access to patient data and be able to communicate more effectively between teams. This could even be applied to the other emergency services networks such as the police, fire brigade or paramedics who need constant feedback and information to make real-time decisions.
Looking ahead
The PSTN switch off and 2G/3G sunset is on the horizon. Healthcare providers need to review their inventories, devices and network options as soon as possible. Foresight and planning will prove vital. Health and social care organisations with deployed IoT devices, and those planning future implementations, must consider all the services and solutions their IoT installations provide.
As technology advances, by adopting solutions that stay ahead of potential communication challenges, healthcare providers can ensure that their systems remain robust, secure and flexible wherever they are deployed.
By working more closely with their IoT connectivity providers, who can advise them on what multi-network solution to employ case by case, they will preserve the continuity of service necessary to deliver vital care.
This article originally appeared in the October 24 magazine issue of IoT Insider.
