New Integration alert! Dialaxy & Hubspot will be integrated. Learn More
NumGenie has launched on Product Hunt!!
Purchase unlimited numbers for unparalleled flexibility and connectivity in your contact center
Expand your business’s reach nationwide with a toll-free number accessible in the US, and Canada
Secure a vanity phone number online for your business. Build brand identity, improve customer recall, and create a professional image easily.
Register multiple phone numbers for your agents and efficiently manage calls from various devices within a single system
Customize business hours for individual phone numbers, ensuring calls are received at your preferred time
Craft customized greetings for welcome and voicemail messages to enhance caller experience
Easily convert written text into spoken words using our cutting-edge Text-to-Speech functionality
Ensure seamless call routing to the appropriate team member every time by customizing your call distribution
An interactive customer menu, facilitating seamless navigation and access prior to connecting with an agent
Enhance your reach and streamline communication, ideal for contact center operations
Access unlimited call history records for comprehensive tracking and analysis of each number
Efficiently manage multiple conversations with our seamless call holding feature from separate lines.
Access voicemail transcriptions conveniently through the Voicemail Logs section
Boost contact center insights with Call Recording: Capture key conversations for improved communication strategies
Customize your inbound calling journey to align with your business's unique needs and meet customers' expectations
Easily configure call forwarding for your Dialaxy phone numbers to ring web portals, landlines, or mobile apps
Easily send and receive global text messages using your Dialaxy number with unlimited logs
Business texting from any registered line in Dialaxy, enabling instant SMS exchange while seamlessly integrating your CRM
Efficiently organize message logs by filtering them based on date and time, providing detailed and refined data
Silence conversations effortlessly with our convenient mute conversation feature to control over your messaging experience
Elevate drip campaigns with automated SMS messages, easily managed from your Dialaxy account
Automate messages with the schedule SMS feature for business to improve communication and boost productivity by sending texts at the perfect time.
Effortlessly schedule MMS for your business to automate multimedia messages, engage customers, and enhance your marketing campaigns.
Access our web applications seamlessly on various web browsers for a versatile and user-friendly experience
Unlock the full potential of our mobile app for effortless communication on the go. Explore intuitive features tailored for convenience and productivity
Access our desktop agent seamlessly on Mac, Windows, and Linux for a versatile user experience.
Make calls directly from your browser using the Dialaxy Chrome extension, eliminating the need to use your phone
Easily share your Dialaxy phone numbers with team members for seamless collaboration
Efficiently organize call, message, voicemail logs by filtering them based on date and time, providing detailed and refined data
Expand your agent group seamlessly for enhanced teamwork and productivity within your organization
Connect with an unlimited number of contacts, ensuring comprehensive communication coverage
Receive incoming call alerts directly on your screen and initiate conversations instantly by clicking the banner.
Stay informed with mobile notifications, ensuring you never miss important updates or messages while on the go
Receive voicemails directly to your email account with attached recordings, ensuring seamless access and convenient playback
Stay updated with extension notification, helping you to manage task smoothly
Easily activate integrations with just one click from the Dialaxy admin dashboard, streamlining all settings management
Streamline your workflow with seamless CRM integrations compatible with leading CRM platforms, without switching tabs
Expand your network of shared contacts through Google Contacts, mobile phones, CSV files, or CRM integration
Automatically sync. data with your existing CRM, seamlessly consolidating all information into one unified system
Discover top-tier platforms compatible with Dialaxy for enhanced marketing, productivity, and CRM capabilities
Try Dialaxy live! Schedule your demo session today.
Connect Dialaxy with your favourite tools. View all integration
Clear calls to advanced collaboration, get your startup's communication covered.
Prioritise patients first and ensure a safe communication.
Enhance customer communication for orders, complaints, and returns.
Maximise customer support for better travel experience.
Boost customer engagement, and manage high volumes of calls.
Maximise guest experience, streamline reservations, and optimize staff collaboration.
Provide franchise support, streamline operations, and ensure seamless collaboration.
Optimize team collaboration, client interactions, and consultations.
Enhance client service, claims processing, and agent collaboration.
Elevate candidate engagement, streamline interviews, and optimize team collaboration.
Enhance student engagement, streamline administrative tasks, and facilitate seamless collaboration.
Stay updated with industry insights and tips on our blog.
Expert tips on VoIP, cloud telephony, and virtual phone numbers—all in one place.
Explore the advantages of upgrading to Dialaxy from your current VoIP system.
Maximize lead possibilities of your company with Local Phone Number
Get local, toll-free, and vanity virtual phone numbers for countries like the USA, Canada, UK, and many more. Boost global communication with ease.
Get insights into who we are and what we stand for.
Explore inspiring success stories from our regular clients.
Get access to our app for seamless communication on the go.
Find answers to common questions on our Help Center page.
Verify phone numbers and enhance consumer profiles with fresh, accurate lead data from hundreds of trusted sources.
A free phone validation tool designed to accurately verify and ensure the authenticity of phone numbers across various formats and regions.
Perform a free phone carrier lookup on any phone number across various countries, providing instant details about the carrier and network provider.
Perform a free reverse phone lookup on any phone number, allowing you to quickly identify the caller's details from any country across the globe.
Generate up to five unique phone numbers instantly at no cost using our Random Phone Number Generator tool.
Convert text into realistic audio with our free Text-to-Speech Generator. Ideal for accessibility and customized listening, offering two voice options to suit any purpose.
Use Social Media Finder to quickly and reliably search for online profiles across platforms. Simplify your profile discovery process today.
Instantly convert your voice to text for free with our Speech to Text Generator. Fast, accurate, and easy-to-use voice transcription tool!
Craft professional voicemail greetings in seconds. Use our easy generator to create custom messages quickly and make a great impression!
Home - VoIP - What Is PSTN and How Does It Work: A Complete Guide
VoIP
Communication Fundamentals
Troubleshooting & Support
Guides & How To
Ever wondered how a simple phone call actually reaches the person on the other end? That’s the magic of the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). It has been silently making the world’s voice calls for over one hundred years, keeping people in touch with homes, businesses, and even nations.
So, how does it work? What happens is that the voice is converted into electrical impulses which move through copper wires, switches, and circuits till they reach the other end, which implies the absence of an internet, no apps. It’s just a pure, reliable connection. Even now, PSTN is still in use, but with VoIP phones and digital voice systems, the way we make calls is changing fast.
This guide will explain what PSTN is, how does PSTN works, its pros and cons, and why businesses are switching to smarter, modern alternatives.
Table of Content
The landline telephone system is officially referred to as the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), which, to the majority of us, has always been called the landline system. It is sometimes also called the loving, rather technical, “Plain Old Telephone Service or POTS. It is important to realize that the PSTN is not a single network that is possessed by a single company.
It is a worldwide network of networks; a giant, interwoven web of national, regional, and local telephone networks run by thousands of various operators. It is, fundamentally, an expansive physical system of telephone lines, state-of-the-art fiber optic cables, mega-switches, cellular network access points, even communications satellites, all of which are linked together with the one purpose of one telephone call to another, anywhere on the planet.
Let’s break down the name itself:
The defining magic of the PSTN system lies in this concept of circuit-switching. When you make a call, the network cuts a special, personal, and continuous path between you and your phone and the other person. That pathway is yours and yours alone during the entire duration of your conversation and will ensure a consistent bandwidth. This is what makes landline calls as clear and reliable as a legend.
Public Switched Telephone Network(PSTN) is a procedure where two human beings use two telephone calls using the ordinary telephone lines, step by step. The sequential breakdown is how it works:
The whole process commences once you pick up your telephone handset. This mechanical movement completes an electric circuit and makes your local phone number a part of a special line leading, as it were, to your local telephone exchange (a Central Office). The local loop is known as a closed loop and pulls a little electricity.
The equipment at the Central Office detects this current draw and immediately signals back its readiness by sending you a dial tone.
When you dial the telephone number, every digit is changed to a certain signal which is transmitted along the line to the Central Office. In earlier rotary phones, this was accomplished by the use of a sequence of electrical pulses.
In contemporary touch-tone telephones, a distinct set of frequencies is allocated to each individual number (Dual-Tone Multi-Frequency or DTMF tones). These signals are received and decoded by the highly sensitive switching centers in the Central Office to identify the correct number of the destination you are attempting to call.
The Central Office is the local command center for your call. When calling a neighbor with whom you share the same local office, you can connect your lines within a few milliseconds. Nevertheless, when making a long-distance call, the procedure is an infinitely more complicated one. The Central Office consults its routing tables and forwards your call up the network hierarchy.
This web of switches works in perfect symphony, and the dialed number is examined to determine the most effective and available route to the recipient’s Central Office.
After the network has traced a complete path, it transmits a signal to the Central Office of the recipient, and the Central Office routes the call into the destination line. This act transmits an electric current to the phone of the recipient, causing it to ring.
This is done by the two picking up the handset, which completes the circuit. At this precise instant, a dedicated, private, physical line exists between your two telephones for your exclusive use, and the circuit is now live.
Your microphone has a diaphragm in your handset that vibrates as the sound waves of your voice strike it. These vibrations are transformed into a pattern of electrical signals. These analog signals travel over the dedicated circuit almost at the speed of light, over underground copper wires, through switching offices, over fiber-optic trunks, to the other end.
At that point, the receiver on the other end of the handset turns these electrical signals sent to them back into vibrations, which accurately reproduce the sound waves of your voice that they can hear. This is the whole two-way process that occurs at the same time.
Plain Old Telephone System (POTS) became the beginning of the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) in the late 1800s. Early call network operators could connect calls manually, but as the call volume increased, automated central offices and tandem offices managed long-distance calls automatically.
PSTN used underground copper wires and circuit switching for many years, and assigned each call one line. Although it was dependable, this restricted the number of simultaneous calls that the network could support.
Digital voice and fiber optic cables enhanced the quality and capacity of calls in the 1970s and 1980s. The international calls were also quicker due to the development of communication satellites that span an extended distance across the world.
PSTN is now used with VoIP and unified communications. Most companies implement hybrid systems that have the reliability of PSTN with the contemporary digital capability, including video calls, SIP trunking, and artificial intelligence-based call routing. Although digital networks are on the increase, PSTN still has some significance in emergency services, and in places where internet connectivity is minimal.
Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) is based on a well-organised architecture to provide a trustworthy voice between two phones. This process revolves around switches, and the connection is dedicated throughout the process of making a call until it is terminated.
Here are the four key components that form the PSTN network architecture:
The central office is also known as a local exchange or telephone exchange. It links the individual phone lines to the wider PSTN. Central office switches (each) can carry thousands of lines, up to 10,000.
When you call, the central office finds out where you want to go and points the connection in such a way that your voice goes to the appropriate recipient. This is the initial process towards proper and dependable voice communication.
The tandem office manages switching between different central offices. For instance, if you call someone in another town within the same country, the call is routed from your local exchange to a tandem office.
The tandem office then forwards the signals to the recipient’s nearest central office, enabling seamless connection across telephone networks.
The toll office does long-distance and national calls. It keeps the voice quality high even over long distances, as calls traversing across cities or states are efficiently directed.
Toll offices also liaise with central offices and tandem offices to ensure that loss of signals does not occur and to ensure that there are continuous connections.
In international calls, it is the international PSTN gateway that routes the call to the right country. It connects with foreign PSN and handles international switch over, thus making sure that the call is delivered effectively to the receiver.
This aspect plays a very important role in global connectivity and is usually combined with communications satellites and digital voice networks.
PSTN has been the basis of voice communication throughout the world. VoIP and digital voice technologies have not yet replaced PSTN; nevertheless, they still provide many benefits to individuals and companies.
PSTN offers very high stability and reliability. Through dedicated circuit-switched lines, a path is continuously maintained between the caller and the recipient with each call. This reliability allows for a few dropped calls, and PSTN is good when emergency services, essential business communication, and areas with poor internet connectivity are required.
Calls maintain a clear and consistent voice signal using a circuit and robust PSTN network infrastructure. In contrast to certain internal-based systems, PSTN calls are not burdened with latency, jitter, or distortion, which is very important to contact centers, customer care, and professional contacts.
PSTN occurs both in urban and rural locations, which is supported by the central office, tandem office, and toll office. PSTN is a reliable option globally, unlike VoIP phone systems that need internet connectivity to operate and that can only serve almost all places with the use of a standard telephone line.
A lot of organizations are still using the traditional PBX or branch exchange. PSTN can be easily integrated with these configurations and, by doing so, businesses will have the opportunity to retain their current infrastructure and still provide dependable voice transmission between offices.
PSTN provides international connectivity through the use of international gateways, communications satellites, and combined digital networks. This also makes local and long-distance calls possible, and businesses and consumers can communicate all over the world without any kind of doubt.
PSTN itself is a secure system because of dedicated circuits and the absence of reliance on the Internet packet switches. It minimizes the vulnerability to cyberattacks by providing business phone systems, government processes, and confidential conversations with privacy and confidentiality.
Although the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) has been the main communication tool of the world over the past decades, it has its limits as well. Companies and personalities are moving to VoIP and digital telephony due to the following disadvantages:
Traditional PSTN lines require physical branch exchanges and telephone infrastructure. Adding new lines or expanding PBX systems for growing teams can be costly and slow. Unlike VoIP, it doesn’t scale easily for modern business phone systems or contact centers.
Maintaining copper wires, central offices, and tandem offices is expensive. PSTN costs for long-distance calls, line rentals, and repairs can quickly add up compared to digital voice solutions.
The PSTN system was built for voice calls only. It cannot natively support video conferencing, AI voice assistants, call routing, or integration with digital platforms and partner portals. Businesses miss out on the efficiencies provided by modern VoIP phones and unified communications.
Traditional telephone networks rely on physical lines, which makes remote work and mobility challenging. Unlike VoIP systems, PSTN does not easily connect remote employees, mobile devices, or multiple office branches seamlessly.
Many telecommunications providers are phasing out PSTN in favor of digital networks. This means reduced maintenance, limited updates, and eventually, less global support for public switched telephone networks.
Businesses today rely on cloud systems, CRM platforms, and collaboration tools. PSTN lines cannot integrate with these digital tools, limiting automation and efficiency in business phone systems.
The PSTN network was designed for voice, not data. It has limited bandwidth, making video calls, file transfers, or high-quality digital voice impossible without supplemental internet protocols like SIP trunking.
The Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) has long been the foundation of business phone systems worldwide. Even with the rise of VoIP phones and digital voice solutions, many companies still rely on PSTN for reliable voice communication and as a backup for unified communications platforms.
Traditional PBX systems use PSTN lines to manage inbound calling and outbound calling. This allows businesses to maintain branch exchange setups, route calls efficiently, and ensure high voice quality across offices.
Many contact centers continue to rely on switched telephone networks for call routing. PSTN ensures that voice calls remain stable, even in regions with limited internet access, helping businesses maintain uninterrupted customer support.
For companies with existing telephone networks, PSTN provides seamless compatibility. It connects offices, toll offices, and central offices, making it easier to maintain a consistent business phone system without overhauling the entire network infrastructure.
PSTN remains a dependable solution for long-distance calls and international voice communication, thanks to its tandem offices, international gateways, and well-established switching centers.
Even as businesses adopt digital voice, SIP trunking, and VoIP phones, PSTN often serves as a backup. This ensures that business communications remain uninterrupted during internet outages or network failures.
As businesses need more advanced communication, the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) is being replaced by digital voice solutions. VoIP phones carry voice calls over Internet Protocol networks, and SIP trunking connects PBX systems, branch exchanges, and unified communications platforms. Digital solutions reduce PSTN costs, scale easily, and support remote teams.
The PSTN system uses circuit switching, offering stable voice quality but limited features. VoIP phones send voice signals as digital data, enabling video calls, AI voice, and integration with partner portals, while lowering long-distance and international call costs.
Hosted PBX works in the cloud, using SIP trunking or VoIP phones. It supports call routing, digital voice, and AI features without heavy branch exchange infrastructure. It integrates with unified communications, offering flexibility and cost savings over PSTN systems.
ISDN improved PSTN with digital voice and data, but still relied on physical lines. Today, SIP trunking and digital voice solutions replace ISDN, offering better network infrastructure, lower PSTN costs, and integration with modern business communication platforms.
Let’s compare in tabular form:
The Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) has been a cornerstone of global voice communication for decades, but its future is increasingly limited. Many telecommunications providers are gradually phasing out PSTN in favor of digital voice solutions, SIP trunking, and VoIP phones, which offer more flexibility, lower PSTN costs, and advanced features like AI voice, video conferencing, and unified communications.
For businesses, this shift means that relying solely on traditional landlines is becoming less practical. Organizations are moving toward digital networks that support remote work, branch exchanges, and seamless integration with partner portals and cloud platforms. Even in areas where PSTN remains active, it often serves as a backup rather than the primary phone system.
In short, the future of PSTN is being redefined. While it may still provide voice reliability for a few years, the global trend clearly favors VoIP, hosted PBX, and digital voice technologies as the sustainable and scalable solutions for modern business communications.
The Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) has been the backbone of voice communication for over a century. It’s reliable, familiar, and has supported businesses and households alike. But the world is changing. Digital voice, VoIP phones, hosted PBX, and SIP trunking offer more flexibility, advanced features, and lower costs, especially for long-distance calls, remote teams, and modern business phone systems.
For many businesses, sticking with PSTN alone is no longer practical. The smart move is to explore digital alternatives, either as a replacement or as a backup to traditional lines. The transition doesn’t have to be complicated. With the right tools, companies can keep the voice quality and reliability they trust while gaining scalability, AI features, and seamless integration with today’s digital workflows.
In short, PSTN taught us how to connect. Digital voice will take us further, faster, smarter, and more efficiently.
The Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) is the traditional global telephone network that connects calls using circuit switching. When you make a call, your voice signals are converted into electrical signals, travel through copper wires, fiber optics, or satellites, pass through switching centers, and are converted back into sound at the receiver’s end.
The main purpose of PSTN is to provide reliable voice communication between two or more parties over long or short distances. It supports business phone systems, residential calls, and even international voice calls using a network of central offices, tandem offices, and branch exchanges.
When a call is made, the voice is converted into electrical signals, routed through local exchanges and toll offices, and travels via switching centers to the receiver. This circuit-switching method ensures a dedicated path for the duration of the call, delivering consistent voice quality.
Yes, PSTN is still used, especially in areas with limited internet connectivity and in legacy business phone systems. However, its usage is declining as VoIP, hosted PBX, and digital voice solutions become more common due to lower costs and advanced features.
Digital voice solutions like VoIP phones, SIP trunking, and hosted PBX systems are gradually replacing PSTN. These technologies provide call routing, AI voice, video conferencing, and seamless integration with unified communications platforms, making them ideal for modern businesses.
Traditionally, PSTN was analog, using electrical signals to transmit voice calls over copper wires. Modern PSTN lines increasingly support digital technologies, including ISDN lines and digital voice transmission, before the complete transition to IP-based systems like VoIP.