Openreach Warn 1.5 million UK Analogue Phone Lines Yet to Make Digital Switch
The latest update from network access provider Openreach (BT) has today warned that homes and businesses only have 6 months left before the old Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) is permanently retired on 31st January 2027. As it stands, some 1.5 million UK lines (down from 1.9m in June 2026) are still operating on legacy copper, including roughly 350,000 business premises (the latter group faces disconnection).
Just to recap. The legacy phone switch-off was previously delayed from the original end of 2025 date in order to give broadband ISPs, phone, telecare providers, councils and consumers more time to adapt (details), but it will not be delayed again. The main focus of this was on the 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 (telecare providers were slow to adapt).
In most cases such upgrades merely involve a fairly seamless change of service, managed by your broadband or phone provider, which often results in customers needing to connect their home phone into the back of either a broadband router or Analogue Terminal Adapter (ATA); instead of directly into the socket on your wall or skirting board (NTE5 sockets). Special solutions also exist for telecare users.
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The good news, as recently reported on ISPreview (here), is that consumer lines won’t face a hard disconnection on 31st January 2027 and there will be a temporary Emergency Voice Access (eVAC) solution for those who fail to migrate. Business lines, however, won’t benefit from the same protection and will need to go digital ASAP to avoid a sudden loss of service – potentially impacting critical systems like payment terminals, alarms, and emergency lift phones etc. Some of the latter lines may have been forgotten about over the years.
As the industry enters the final phase of migration, Openreach warns that waiting too long could make it harder to secure the engineering support needed for the switch before the deadline. In addition, Openreach has previously stated that prices for these legacy copper line services are set to double by October 2026 (details), which is another good reason NOT to leave upgrading until the last minute.
WLR Price increases:
● On 1 April 2026 the WLR basic rental price rose from the current price of £10.65 by 20%. The rental price was also raised for other WLR variants
● On 1 July 2026 the WLR basic rental price rose by 40% of the current price. The rental price also rose for other WLR variants
● On 1 October 2026 the WLR basic rental price will rise by a further 40% of the current price. This will be to double the current rental price. The rental price will also rise for other WLR variants.
James Lilley, Director of All-IP at Openreach, said:
“The PSTN switch-off is now just six months away and there is no extension to the deadline. While millions of customers and many providers and businesses have already made great progress, too many organisations remain exposed to unnecessary risk by delaying their migration plans.
Inaction is no longer about uncertainty but preparedness, and those who wait risk leaving customers exposed to avoidable service disruption. The consequences go beyond technical issues – they can lead to lost revenue, operational difficulties and a poorer experience for customers.
The message is simple: act now. Businesses should speak to their service provider today, understand which services could be affected, and make sure they have a clear migration plan in place well before January 2027.”
Openreach are now beginning to issuing formal notifications to Communications Providers (ISPs and phone providers etc.) with outstanding migrations, reinforcing the urgency of the transition and encouraging providers to engage customers who have yet to make plans.
Just to clarify one point that some people often get wrong, this isn’t directly about removal of the physical copper lines themselves. Modern digital alternatives are available via both existing copper (e.g. both ADSL and VDSL/FTTC have data-only equivalents called SOTAP and SOGEA that providers offer) and full fibre lines. The removal of copper lines is a much slower process that will take years to fully complete after FTTP becomes available.
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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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So the rate of migration has dropped, again, to around 200,000 per month. They need it to be at 250,000 or more.
It’s not going to happen on time because they are now dealing with the least ‘enthusiastic’ customers who will do whatever they can to procrastinate.
I have around 25 clients who point blank refuse to engage on the subject until January 2027 so I’ve had to say we cannot guarantee assistance if this is not resolved by October. They are happy to do their own thing and take the risk.
BT Business do not help. Every migration that I have been involved with them has gone wrong in one way or the other, from orders being cancelled to lines dropping.
On the retail side, I’m told Plusnet are struggling with their migration after EE accidentally deleted a lot of orders. A client in Wales received a router with a switch date of the 6th July, but have been told it will not happen for another 2-3 months.
Extrapolate that relatively small sample across the country and there are a lot of issues currently ongoing.
In the BT Group world, PDPL (exchange based VoIP) will be the great unblocker for a lot of those lines. The problem is then with the exceptionally difficult circumstances such as analogue PBX lines, lines that have both WLR phone and broadband, and other niches which the PDPL product does not support.
My own experience with migration has been rather better. BT Business (or rather those local business partners) are quite useless as they like to oversell, eg if you say you had multiple extension phones on one line and just want the same again, they’ll insist you need multiple cloud voice “licences” and numbers. But the port went through fine. The porting team called just before and after the port went through, checking that it worked okay, etc.
BT Consumer (except Plusnet) works even better for the few people I’ve assisted. I finally gave up my own BT PSTN line when I got EE FTTP and it was seamless. A few minutes elapsed between connecting the new router and getting an email that it was all done.
I thought Plusnet was not going to be doing VOIP lines & you would have to move to EE.
Plusnet customers wishing to retain voice are offered transfer to EE. It is some of these orders that have been lost.
I really do not understand why BT does not offer DV to existing Plusnet customers even if it means a specific router variant. BT badged as Plusnet or revised firmware on the older router used for Plusnet.
Note:
1) BT Consumer DV is direct corded device to the proprietary Router
2) BT Business is standard VoIP with registered devices (by MAC address) connected to the LAN via Ethernet
Most issues are Businesses understanding there is a difference. Especially if all they want is a single corded device. A VoIP (via Ethernet) CISCO Desk phone or or Yealink DECT base are normally provided.
@Meadmodj The Plusnet Hub 2 is a rebadged BT Smart Hub 2 so it already has the VOIP adapter built in but it has been disabled in firmware. It should only need a firmware update to enable it
I’ve had to help someone who has an old ADSL line and poor mobile reception. Communication is very difficult and many wasted hours with BT/EE support. I just know that some people are going to be cut off completely with all this confusion.
home users phone services arent cut off ( home broadband is from a previous video ), its only businesses that are totally cut off
Wonder how many rural properties still rely on copper, as there seems to still be a lot of fumbling on the build program!
around 10 million properties in the UK arent on full fibre, so not just rural. DV can run on either sogea ( was fttc ) or full fibre, so the full fibre rollout/build has no relevance on DV, i was on sogea+dv for a good year+ before full fibre arrived 3 months back, with no issues, now on ff+dv with no issues
This is the problem, living in a city that is surrounded by the countryside, I know a few people that lives in the sticks and some of them have poor mobile and not very good broadband if any.
Sadly, BT don’t care, but then that seems to be normal from companies these days.
It is a shame that the local company that did Wireless broadband via churches did not do too well and failed.
Just a little correction, SOTAP is not a single order equivalent of ADSL, there isn’t one.
It is an voice product that uses exchange-based broadband. SOTAP stands for Single Order Temporary Audio Product.
So far as I’m aware it’s always stood for Single Order Transitional Access Product (inc. SOADSL), which in Openreach’s own words provides “a Copper loop over which a wholesaler can connect their ADSL services to enable IP voice”.
https://www.openreach.co.uk/cpportal/content/dam/cpportal/public/images-and-documents/home/products/copper/sotap/documents/how-it-works/Introduction_to_SOTAP_Jan_2022.pdf
My bad. Forgive me, they did rename it since the original launch.
However, while SOTAP does require a broadband circuit to provide IP voice it doesn’t include a SOADSL circuit. It is a voice only product.
It was pitched by Openreach to major broadband wholesalers such as Talk Talk and BT Wholesale because they are the only companies who have the country wide broadband infrastructure required to provide SOTAP.
SOTAP (Single Order Transitional Access Product) was created by Openreach for premises which do not have FTTP (full fibre) or SOGEA (part fibre / VDSL from a nearby cabinet), it will be used by BT Wholesale to provide SOADSL (Single Order ADSL), a data-only product which may have a VoIP / Digital Voice service on top.
As an aside I don’t know why they had to invent a new product – MPF has existed for years and provides the same service (a copper connection from customers premises to a rack in the exchange) for other communication providers.
To muddy the waters ‘SOTAP for Analogue’ (Single Order Transitional Access Product for Analogue) was subsequently created which will be used by BT Wholesale to provide PDPL (Pre-Digital Phone Line), a voice-only product which emulates the signalling of the PSTN equipment being retired.
I think you remain confused.
Openreach offers two products with SOTAP in the name:
SOTAP – this is a copper wire from the end user’s premises to “LLU” equipment in the exchange. This is the means by which Openreach enables BT to offer BT Wholesale’s SOADSL product.
SOTAP for Analogue – this is a copper wire from the end user’s premises to some form of voice terminating equipment in the exchange. This is the means by which BT offer their Pre Digital (analogue) Phone Line (PDPL).
In the analogue phone line world there is also Emergency Voice ACcess (EVAC) which is an Openreach product, albeit possibly using BT’s PDPL infrastructure and presumably Openreach’s SOTAP for Analogue product concept to provide the physical wire.
Several former clients (I’m supposed to be retired, although I’ve got a part time job so that my long suffering husband doesn’t have to cope with me 24/7.), specifically rural businesses, have phoned me in desperation.
They have either just WLR3 analogue, or ISDN2e, or WLR3+ADSL.
VDSL2 is unavailable since their serving rDSLAM cabinets are at capacity and have been so for years.
They go on the cabinet waiting list, only to get bumped off, with no notification from BTLB.
Those with just WLR3 want to “upgrade” to SOADSL 0.5M, with the remainder wanting SOADSL 24M.
BT Local Business seem to be incapable of implementing these migrations, especially if the customer already has a third-party VoIP service, which they wish to retain, rather than switching to BT’s Cloud Voice products.
Some BTLB sales bods are saying that customers will not be able to retain their WLR3/ISDN directory numbers, which some have had for decades, should they migrate away from BTLB, even though that is complete b0110cks of course.
I recently connected a Grandstream 4-port ATA to an ancient BT Revelation analogue PABX at a rural business where the owner is due to retire in 15-months; it works just fine, despite BTLB saying it wasn’t possible of course.
The bloke is 75, he doesn’t want to take out a multi-year Cloud contract, or buy an IPPBX, when he’s going to retire before the end of next year.
BT plc need to knock some subsidiary heads together, to ensure that non-discriminatory migration paths are actually available to existing customers.
They’re not doing themselves any favours by allowing BTLB franchisees to behave so badly.
They could start by confiscating BTLB’s sack of (proverbial) spanners.
/End of rant.
well said. far too much red tape on everything.
and how many products and services people buy mistakenly because the ISP says so?
I had an email from EE today stating my services don’t work without their hub connected yet internet is fine. I suspect it reffers to EE TV which I have via apple tv, their pro box requires multicasting which again will work fine as long as your router supports it.
too much of this isn’t there.
I have been following this topic because my mother still has a BT (Retail) phone line. And I am really enjoying the fake news coming out of the BT Group, mainly via Openreach.
My mother doesn’t have a BT (or Openreach) broadband circuit so all she has received from BT Retail for the past 2+ years is a constant stream of letters stating that they will migrate her phone line, that she doesn’t need to do anything, that they will tell her the date that the migration.
But what they haven’t done is actually migrate her phone line!
My assumption is that they are prioritising customers who have BT (or Openreach) broadband circuits because they are easy to migrate to digital voice and may, or may not, get to phone line only customers before the January 2027 shutoff.
And it is hilarious to keep seeing BT/Openreach “warning” people, when they are some of the biggest culprits at dragging their feet to migrate customers.
If she doesn’t have broadband, she might be due to, or possibly already has been migrated to PDPL. That does not need any new equipment or a visit (unless registered as a vulnerable customer) as it is all done in the exchange. That is the medium term stop gap for existing BT phone-only customers.
Biggest clue is whether you can dial local numbers without the area code. PDPL does not permit this, instead you get an announcement
if she doesnt have broadband and marked as vulnerable ( not assuming she is or isnt ) then isnt that the idea of pdpl ie nothing changes, phone still plugs into the wall socket and works in a power cut
Fellas, I didn’t say she doesn’t have broadband, I said she doesn’t have BT (Openreach) broadband.
Virginmedia migrated her VM line to IP voice more than 3 years ago. No visit, no mess, no fuss. I installed a cable from the router to her old handset on the date they specified, job done.
She is registered as vulnerable and as the latest letter from BT Retail explains they will notify her of the date of the migration, that was received late 2025 / early 2026.
I am pretty sure that the contract requires BT Retail to provide notification of any major change to service. And I doubt whether a notification stating “the service will change at some point in the future” would satisfy their legal obligations for a vulnerable old person. Which isn’t what BT’s letters have been stated anyway.
I am sorry but talking about PDPL seems like a guess or an attempt to try to rationalise and/or justify.
Like I said, a very interesting situation. She has been waiting something like 24 months since the first letter was received from BT Retail and BT has only 4 or 5 months left to finally deliver what it has promised in writing.
I am simply watching to see whether BT heeds its own “warnings”, the ones it keeps sending out to the media about other companies. Because other companies are always the problem, right?
First letter about the conversion received early 2025. Most recent letter received last month that the change will be happening ‘soon’! But nobody can tell me when ‘soon’ is. Very fed up waiting for the conversion.
Few are aware of NESO (National Energy System Operator) which has the rather important job of planning and operating the overarching energy system, balancing supply and demand to keep the lights on across Great Britain. And like many slow-moving organisations it’s still using fax machines to send and receive critical data.
Most modern VOIP adapters are capable of handling fax calls. So they should be able to transfer the fax line to VOIP (if they must).