Openreach Warn 500K UK Business Lines Haven’t Switched Away from Legacy Phones
National operator Openreach (BT) has today warned that “more than half a million business lines” still haven’t migrated away from the old Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) to new IP-based digital phone (VoIP etc.) alternatives, which with only 12-months to go until the service is switched-off risks firms being exposed to price hikes, as well as “failing equipment and eventual loss of service“.
Just to recap. The legacy phone switch-off was last year delayed to 31st January 2027 in order to give broadband ISPs, phone, telecare providers, councils and consumers more time to adapt (details). The main focus of this was the 1.8 million UK people who use vital home telecare systems (e.g. elderly, disabled – vulnerable users), which aren’t always compatible with digital phone services because telecare providers were slow to adapt.
However, there are currently still roughly 2.8 million lines on the old PSTN network that need to migrate, with more than half a million of those serving business premises. Openreach states that legacy line prices are set to double by October 2026 (details) and businesses thus risk failing equipment and eventual loss of service if they don’t make the switch. “For businesses still relying on copper networks, this isn’t just a technical upgrade, it’s a looming budget and operational crisis,” said the operator (note: only the PSTN phone service is being removed – copper lines still exist and can also handle digital IP-based voice / broadband).
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While many Communication Providers (CPs) have already migrated much of their customer base, a number of “smaller or specialist providers have been slower to act“. Openreach warns that businesses remaining with these providers face unique risks tied to equipment failure. Beyond phones, critical hardware including fire alarms, burglar alarms and payment terminals, will need to be migrated: the latest data reveals more than 12k lift lines and around 500 lines serving CCTV networks need to be upgraded too.
James Lilley, Director of All-IP at Openreach, said:
“There’s no time left to stall. We’ve spent the last year ensuring telecare customers can be migrated safely through our ‘Prove Telecare’ service, removing the final barrier to the switch-off. Now, the reality is simple. The PSTN analogue network is obsolete, becoming harder to maintain and significantly more expensive to run. We are passing those costs on to providers who continue to sell legacy products. If your business is still on this copper service, you will start to pay a premium for a service that will be switched off in 12 months. Most major Communications Providers moved their customers to digital long ago. If your provider hasn’t contacted you, you need to ask why.”
Openreach say they’ve “made clear” that all technical barriers to migration – including protections for vulnerable telecare users – have now been “resolved“. Consequently, says the operator, “the deadline is locked“, and the focus has thus shifted to the urgent withdrawal of legacy copper products. So don’t expect another delay at the 11th hour, Openreach aren’t currently planning for one.
The industry-led shift is being driven by a combination of factors, such as the looming retirement of copper lines in favour of full fibre (FTTP), as well as future exchange closures and the declining reliability of the old phone network (Ofcom states that fault rates have increased substantially in recent years). Not to mention that it is not economically feasible to maintain both the old and new networks side-by-side long term.
The government and ISPs have already introduced various measures to protect consumers, particularly vulnerable users. But businesses won’t benefit from this and need to ensure that their own systems are up-to-date ahead of time. The best way to start this process is by contacting your current provider to discuss the issue. The operator has also setup an information page for businesses looking to make the transition – here.
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Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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No excuses now. Everyone has had more than enough time to adapt. It will have been at least 10 years at the end of Jan ’27 & no way should Openreach delay this again, it will just encourage even more foot dragging.
Agreed. The can-kickers have finally run out of road
Completely agree. The only way some people will switch is when they are disconnected. Too much laziness among some people.
Completely agreed, they’ve all had enough warnings to stop using legacy technology and clearly those companies who are still on such technology are not giving a toss to move with the times. If they refuse to co-operate or keep whining like babies to the regulator/the government, they should be forced to face the consequences and be cut off, so they can realise that this is real, not just some fantasy they can repeatedly use as a stick to force Openreach to “kick the can down the road”.
If the businesses still on legacy PSTN technology don’t want to invest in themselves to move onto modern secure technology, Openreach should just say “we don’t want to do business with you, bye”. Same should, at this point, apply to any residential customer with an ISP that isn’t trying to move them over to SOGEA/FTTP. Enough is enough.
As long as I’m not in one of their lifts when it breaks down, more fool them
“For businesses still relying on copper networks”
Copper is litterally all we can get here in a major city. We’re desperate for fibre but Openreach are the ones failing to provide it.
It was poorly phrased. You can get VOIP over FTTC or ADSL.
Not the best terminology to use. They should explain that the phone lines are shutting down, not the broadband regardless of the technology used.
You’re unfortunately misinformed because of previous ISP behaviour. You do NOT need full fibre FTTP to move off legacy technology and you should NOT be waiting for full fibre to arrive to ensure you get off the legacy PSTN.
Part-fibre services, where you receive a broadband connection and a traditional landline is handled by VOIP (either from your provider through the phone port on their router, or from a third party), are there for anyone who doesn’t have access to FTTP. Many properties have access to FTTP, even in cities as that infrastructure was built a long time ago. You should be checking with your ISP and seeing if you can move to SOGEA (aka VDSL, part-fibre services), and taking action now.
This is bad wording.
The copper networks are not going anywhere. Only the analogue phone service is going. Your copper lines can still be used for broadband and for digital voice.
I suspect many of those 500,000 business phone lines are ones that they never got around to cancelling – like old forgotten fax lines.
If no Full Fibre available, just the copper line are available, then there is no reason why many businessess and home users remain on copper line as it will be down on Openreach responsible to ensure it switch over to full fibre.
Hello Max,
This is not about the transition from copper to fibre, it’s about the transition form WLR3/analogue-voice/PSTN/ISDN/FTTC etc. to VoIP over SOGEA/SOADSL/SOGFast/FTTP.
Fibre is nice, but it’s not required for VoIP.
Hope you’re enjoying your new FTTP service?
All the best.
I’ve been retired for a while now, but we still get calls, from former small business customers, looking for advice about migrating PABX system lines to VoIP and for a VoIP equivalent to Centrex.
The BT Local Business franchise, that covers my area, is still a thing and hasn’t been re-absorbed back into BT yet.
That particular BTLB franchise is, in my opinion, a complete clown-show-horror-story, as I hear are several others.
They’ve had numerous allegations of mis-selling levelled against them.
Our former clients tell us that this has engendered a generalised climate of mistrust, which has in turn led to inertia, since they no longer trust any consultants/suppliers, believing that they are going to get ripped-off, whomever they choose.
One said to me, on the 5th of Jan, “I don’t know where to turn, if I can’t trust BT Business, who can I trust?”.
I have some sympathy, since these folks are mostly technically illiterate and would have defaulted to BT Business, at least they would have done, before BTLB was inflicted upon them.
I fear that this is going remain a problem, since I doubt BTOR are geared-up for an extra 500K SOTAP circuits, on top of those required for the true “edge-cases”.
Despite being happily retired, I still seem to have a morbid interest in what things will look like, at this time next year.
I should add:
Quite a few are confused between the two concurrent transitions.
i.e Confusing the Copper to Fibre transition with that of WLR3/analogue/ISDN2e to VoIP.
Another former customer said to me, “I got a letter, saying that my phone line would be cut off, at the end of the year, So I phoned up to order a fibre-optic line, only to be told that it’s not available yet. So I can’t switch to digital!”.
It doesn’t help that the general news media (i.e. Not you Mark!), are conflating the two, as if they were one and the same thing.
2.8 million lines possibly still active on a network that was originally to have been shut down by now is staggering. This is likely to hit the headlines if users start getting demands for the increased charges, getting cut-off or if pressure isapplied to BT to postpone the deadline.
Trouble is if Openreach back down now they might as well forget about the whole thing (until the existing equipment expires). People have had more than enough notice.
I think it would be time for the BT Group to play hard ball no matter how hysterical the newspapers might get over it. Technical solutions exist (BT has PDPL and now Openreach has EVAC) and they should be able to charge accordingly.
If BT were still a total monopoly then the government would be right to push them around, but in the era of rampant competition it is already grossly unfair that they have already had to maintain decrepit infrastructure for longer than they’d like. 2 years additional warning was enough.
BT still has monopoly power despite the nascent competition. Although I do agree they should not have to maintain outdated tech just because a few people are dragging their feet. I suspect there’ll be quite a few pikachu faces when the price doubles.
I think there is a bit of a misunderstanding here, gentlemen.
Openreach have been very keen to push for the change to FTTP at the same time as the switch to digital phones services, as it saves them work. This is led to people thinking the two things are inseparable. They are not. Digital phone services will run quite happily over copper-based broadband.
I’ve been doing just that for last two years, until Full Fibre became available in September.
On the domestic side, who wants Openreach digging up a fair sized garden to bury 14mm sub duct, and then enter a property with sticky soil laden boots in a room with a beige carpet to install a ONT, in weather like most of the UK is experiencing at the moment, not many i would suggest. In the words of the Beatles song “Here Comes The Sun” – hopefully sooner than later! 🙂
they might not have to. Any speed of SOGEA line is available in areas not yet under FTTP stop sell. Existing FTTC lines can be moved to 40Mbit SOGEA in stop sell areas.
So someone who is adamant about not having their garden dug up quite yet could still be moved to “Digital Voice”.
Lines that don’t have an associated broadband service can be moved to the exchange-based PDPL (BT retail and wholesale) or now to EVAC (for Openreach CPs other than BT, though the LLU operators that do their own thing for voice aren’t affected by WLR closure anyway)
The problem with a move from (Openreach FTTC Broadband + analogue landline number) to (SoGEA + VoIP) is that the process is completely broken! The only way to do this is to port your number to a VoIP supplier, which automatically cancels the Broadband service, and then contract for SoGEA as a new install, with the normal minimum OR leadtime and praying that the SoGEA service arrives over the original copper pair (no easy way to either obtain or re-specify the ALID / BBEU for the pair). Apparently Openreach will only allow a single order outstanding on a line, with no way to combine the two requests into a single order. You can do it the other way round – move to SoGEA and then reclaim the landline number within 30 days – but either route involves loss of service on either Broadband or Phone. No wonder many businesses / homes are either frozen in the headlights or giving up their landline number, disastrous for small businesses / sole traders who rely on it for new work.
I think Openreach are right but also masking some of their own internal problems which DEFINITLEY still exist. Data integrity issues, ie address keys which have never been properly updated as postcodes change are a nightmare. If ORDIs have a 80% success rate but the remaining 20% with the manual team (say 300) take 2 months on average to fix because only 50% of your emails and escalations are responded to. Then we may run out of road before Jan 27.
Maybe an automatic announcement on every WLR line when they make an outgoing call to advise the service will cease jan 2027 will prompt users into action
Cut them off, stop charging them for the service you are no longer providing, and see how many complain.