Free tool — 2 minutes

Is your business ready for the landline switch-off?

The UK's old copper phone network (PSTN and ISDN) is being retired by Openreach, with a final national deadline of 31 January 2027. Exchanges are already being switched over area by area. Answer six questions to see where you stand.

I know whether my business phone lines are already on a digital/VoIP system, or still running on the old analogue network

I've been told (or checked) whether my local exchange has a confirmed switch-off date yet

I've accounted for anything else that uses a phone line — alarm systems, door entry, card machines, lift phones, fax

I know what happens to my broadband if it currently runs over a copper line (ADSL/FTTC) rather than full fibre

I have a plan for what happens to phone calls during a power cut — traditional landlines keep working, most VoIP systems don't without battery backup

Someone is actually responsible for managing this migration — it's not just assumed to be "someone else's problem"

What's actually happening

Openreach is retiring the old PSTN and ISDN phone network across the UK. The original deadline of December 2025 was pushed back to give providers more time to move vulnerable customers safely, and the new final deadline is 31 January 2027. It isn't a single switch-flip nationwide — individual telephone exchanges are being moved onto "Stop Sell" (no new analogue lines) ahead of that date, area by area, and hundreds of thousands of lines have already been affected.

Why this is more than a phone problem

Anything still connected to a traditional phone line is affected, not just the handsets on people's desks — alarm systems, door entry panels, card machines, lift emergency phones and some older broadband connections can all be quietly relying on infrastructure that's being switched off. The businesses caught out aren't the ones without a plan; they're the ones who assumed someone else had already made one.

What to do about it

This isn't a service we sell off the shelf, but it's exactly the kind of gap that shows up during a proper IT review. It's worth planning alongside anything else you're doing with your network or office setup, rather than leaving it as a last-minute scramble.

Talk to us about your setup