Government has published its Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) Charter. The Charter details how telecoms companies will protect CNI when the PSTN is retired in 2027.
The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) expects those organisations that own and manage CNI assets to engage actively and in good faith with their communication provider(s) to identify and address their dependencies on the PSTN and ISDN at the earliest opportunity.
The voluntary charter of commitments outlines the core safeguards that communication providers and, where relevant, network operators will put in place to support customers with CNI assets that rely on the PSTN or ISDN.
Within the charter, the signatories – BT, KCOM, Virgin Media 02, Vodafone and Openreach - have committed to establishing a process for identifying CNI customers that they have a direct relationship with (including via self-identification) or, where possible, CNI circuits, and to take all reasonable steps to inform these customers of plans to retire the PSTN and ISDN.
They have also pledged to provide clear dedicated points of contact to liaise on matters relating to the PSTN/ISDN migration for known CNI customers or circuits where they have a direct customer relationship; to support these customers to identify their use of these legacy networks, notwithstanding that devices and services that are not provided by them are the responsibility of CNI asset managers, and their equipment vendors and manufacturers; and to work with known CNI customers to identify alternative connectivity options.
Added to that, the companies have said they will actively support known CNI customers (as well as their equipment manufacturers and vendors) to enable them to test their equipment to ensure functionality over the digital network or, where applicable, transitional products.
They have also committed to not ceasing PSTN or ISDN services to known CNI assets before providing them with prior notice and only to cease such services without explicit consent after having exhausted all avenues of engagement, including up to the highest levels of seniority.
The Charter requires that if a CNI customer does not engage or consent, the company concerned will alert DSIT to this issue and allow time to escalate engagement across government before undertaking a non-voluntary migration. DSIT will work with communication providers and network operators as necessary to establish a defined process with clear timelines for escalating issues across government and responding to the relevant provider or operator.
The signatories have also, where requested by CNI customers, committed to clearly outlining their approach to providing network resilience in the event of a power outage (with particular reference to service constraints) and to discuss any options to improve resilience with them.