The National Coal Mining Museum is a former working colliery which, since its closure in 1985, has kept the history and tradition of coal mining alive by preserving the industry’s rich heritage; creating enjoyable and inspiring ways to learn for people of all ages, backgrounds and abilities. Located near Wakefield, West Yorkshire, thousands of visitors every year descend 140m underground to experience what life was like as a miner; meet horses and pit ponies that once brought coal to the surface; and enjoy beautiful gardens, picnic spots, and an adventure playground. The site also has several areas and rooms that can be hired for private functions and corporate business meetings.

Never any problems during the autumn and winter, repeated service interruptions in the spring and summer – the National Coal Mining Museum knew its phone system was oddly and frustratingly unreliable for part of every year, but it didn’t know why. A few years ago, the system began to randomly fail during the spring and summer months; with staff unable to make or receive calls, and internal communication rendered impossible. The outages would often be short-lived but would sometimes last longer and require a visit from a BT engineer. Eventually, the unreliability was linked to trees through which the system’s overhead cables ran and which, when in full leaf during certain months, caused service interruption. The trees could not be cut down due to their proximity to crucial power lines.

 

The nature of the museum’s business model – hosting school trips and families, and with safety-critical communication requirements underground and in lifts – meant that always-on external and internal communication was an absolute necessity. When the phones went down just a few days before a particular school trip, a quick fix was needed to ensure there was emergency provision. The museum’s existing telephony and support maintenance provider Time Communications – a long-standing Sangoma reseller partner – installed a Sangoma FreePBX VoIP solution and a few handsets as a quick fix. Their immediate issues now temporarily solved, the museum’s management and trustees assessed their longer-term needs. They knew the UK PSTN telephony switch-off in January 2027 would require a digital response, and they sensed that this was the moment to deepen their relationship with Time Communications and Sangoma, and permanently modernise their communications.

Accredited Sangoma Gold Partner Time Communications worked closely with the National Coal Mining Museum to fully understand its reliability issues and to simultaneously help it navigate the impending UK PSTN switch-off. Soon after deploying the market-leading, cloud-powered FreePBX solution as a temporary stop-gap, robust and reliable digital connectivity was a guaranteed given; at whatever time of the year and regardless of the environmental conditions that had so badly affected past performance.

 

With permanent switch-off-related digitisation inevitable, the museum put its full trust in the Sangoma/Time Communications partnership and, working closely together, all parties designed, delivered, and adopted a modern, smart, and future-proof system. Comprising a cloud-based Sangoma FreePBX; a mix of 55 award-nominated Sangoma P310 and P325 handsets; and a higher-grade Sangoma P320 reception console with larger screen, the new system was digitally-converted using Sangoma SIP trunk technology. Ongoing support is provided locally by Time Communications, backed by Sangoma’s global scale, reputation, and ability to continually innovate.

The digitisation and reliability of the museum’s new phone system has dramatically improved the quality of voice communications between its staff and customers: no more random spring/summer outages, no more need to cut down trees, and no more anxiety over the approaching UK PSTN switch-off. Instead, incoming and outgoing calls are crystal clear and completely dependable, every day, all year round.

 

In addition, effective internal communication can be relied upon 24/7, and telephony-enabled alarms have been modernised. Brilliantly, from a service and support perspective, every component of the system is designed, built and provided by Sangoma so, in the event of an issue, it is all guaranteed and, for the museum’s service provider partner Time Communications, there is just one party with which to liaise. Finally, and very importantly, the new system will save the museum at least 20% on its telephony bills going forward, with no more line rentals and significantly cheaper call charges.

 

The museum’s CEO Lynn Dunning says: “We could not be more satisfied with the new system. As a museum dedicated to the important business of preserving and celebrating history, it is perhaps ironic that we have needed to transform our ageing, legacy telephony in order to meet today’s modern challenges. However, in our role as custodians of the past, we know that technology plays a vital role in all our futures. We are delighted to be embracing digital evolution and extremely pleased that all those who support our work, and everyone with whom we communicate, is sharing the positive results.”