Openreach Pilot Emergency UK Phone Lines for 2027 Analogue Switch-Off

Network access provider Openreach (BT) has today begun to inform UK broadband and phone providers about a new pilot called Emergency Voice Access (EVAc), which is intended to be a basic voice-only fallback service for copper lines (WLR) that fail to be migrated in time for the switch-off of analogue phone (PSTN / WLR) services.

Just to recap. The legacy phone switch-off was previously 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 newer IP-based digital phone services because telecare providers were slow to adapt.

In most cases such upgrades merely involve a fairly seamless change of service by your ISP, which often results in you needing to connect your home phone into the back of either a broadband router or small Analogue Terminal Adapter (ATA), instead of directly into the socket on your wall or skirting board (NTE5A-C ). Special solutions also exist for telecare users.

However, there are currently still an overall total c.2.5 million lines on the old phone WLR network that need to be migrated across all providers, with around half a million of those serving business premises. Openreach has also previously stated that prices for these legacy lines are set to double by October 2026 (details), which is another good reason not to leave upgrading until the last minute.

As it stands there are various solutions and approaches that now exist to handle different scenarios under this migration (e.g. Prove Telecare and temporary Pre-Digital Phone Lines (PDPL) / SOTAP Analogue), but a fear remains that at the current run rate of reductions (about 44,000 per week), some old phone and broadband lines may still not be migrated in time (e.g. where customers fail to respond in time or ISPs are slow to take action).

The new EVAc product pilot

Openreach has thus announced that they will kick off a pilot of Emergency Voice Access (EVAc) in the Salisbury and Mildenhall exchange areas from 3rd August 2026. Both locations have often been among the earliest to test related products and service closures, so it’s no surprise to see them being used again for this.

The goal is to “test and prove the systems and processes developed as an emergency over-run product, to maintain voice services through the migration of single-line WLR (over PSTN) lines to WLR EVAc. This will include the bulk removal of broadband from lines prior to their migration“. But this will NOT apply where Communications Providers (CP) have notified them that lines are used by Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) and/or vulnerable customers (other solutions / processes exist for these groups).

Just to clarify the above. This is a stopgap solution that will not carry broadband, ISDN or critical alarm/lift signals. So when the PSTN switch-off happens, phone and internet providers will find their contracts for the current WLR3 (PSTN) service will terminate, and where the service remains, they will instead become subject to the new WLR (EVAC) contract.

Extract from Openreach’s Briefing

Lines migrated onto WLR3 EVAc will continue to be subject to existing WLR3 pricing, but will receive a less feature-rich service, with fewer Calling and Network Features supported, and fewer product features available. Lines migrated to WLR EVAc will no longer support Carrier Pre-Select or Indirect Access call billing arrangements.

We will be writing directly to CPs who have assets impacted by the pilot to share inventories and to request a refresh of insight to identify where a CP believes a vulnerable end customer may use the line.

We will provide CPs with information in a timely manner to enable them to contact their customers to advise the dates for the pilot, and in particular to help ensure that those CPs who have signed up for the DSIT Charter are able to meet their commitments.

All broadband products supplied over WLR in the pilot exchanges will be impacted. CPs who supply FTTC, SMPF and/or SLU to end customers where the WLR line is provided by a different CP, should be aware that the broadband will be ceased as part of the process to migrate the underlying WLR line to WLR EVAc.

The move ensures basic voice connectivity for emergency purposes when analogue lines are finally terminated and should hopefully give those customers one last opportunity to migrate before, we assume, eventual disconnection. But it’s unclear how long Openreach will maintain EVAc for after the WLR/PSTN deadline, although we imagine it won’t be long as future exchange closures could impact it past 2030.

We should clarify that EVAc is technically a much more restricted version of the BT Wholesale PDPL product, but the aim when reaching this stage is still to adopt a gating process that aims to move customers who fail to migrate by the deadline over to a digital phone solution. Yet some customers will clearly still end up on EVAc as a kind of last chance saloon.

The industry-led shift to digital phones 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.

However, just to clarify something that still catches a lot of people out, only the PSTN phone service is currently being removed – copper lines still exist (for now) and can also handle digital IP-based voice and broadband services, so this isn’t just about the wider switch to full fibre (FTTP) lines.