45 Percent of UK Landline Users Confused by Analogue Phone Switch-Off, Survey Claims

A new OnePoll survey of 2,000 UK adults with a landline telephone at home, commissioned by London-focused alternative broadband ISP CommunityFibre, has claimed that 45% of respondents are still unclear about what the looming switch-off of the country’s ageing analogue telephone network means for them.

Just to recap. The legacy phone switch-off on the old Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) is currently due to take place on 31st January 2027. As a result broadband ISPs, phone, telecare providers, councils and consumers have been working to migrate everybody across (details). But the main focus of this remains on the 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).

According to CommunityFibre’s new survey, half of respondents say their home phone is important to them, while 49% of those who value their landline say it is important in case of an emergency and 36% rely on it when their mobile phone has no signal. Similarly, 57% of respondents agree landlines provide older people with peace of mind in case of an emergency.

Despite this, nearly half of those who have not already switched say they are not confident they know what they need to do to replace their traditional landline service. Among those who are not confident, 47% say they have not seen enough information about the switchover, 33% are confused about what changes they need to make and “many are unsure what happens when they switch“. Nearly 4 in 10 who took the survey also say they’d had the same landline number for many years and a fifth don’t want to change it.

Additional Survey Findings

➤ Before taking the survey, 48% were unaware that the switch-off of the PSTN service could affect devices in the home other than telephones, such as telecare alarms, personal emergency pendants and security alarms.

➤ Almost a quarter say they or someone they know uses a personal alarm or telecare alarm that may be affected.

➤ 71% say they would be concerned if a device in their home, or the home of someone they know, stopped working.

➤ 60% say they are likely to prepare by compare deals from other providers.

➤ 53% of those yet to switch say they have not taken any action to prepare.

➤ Only 12% have checked whether their equipment would still work after the switch-off.

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.

The good news is that most UK people have already been transitioned to newer products, with Openreach reporting at the end of July 2026 that just 1.5 million UK lines (down from 1.9m in June 2026) are still operating on legacy copper phones, including roughly 350,000 business premises. Suffice to say it’s likely that many of those responding to the survey above may have already been switched and simply don’t realise it.

Peter Rampling, Community Fibre, said:

“The switch from analogue to digital phone services is a nationwide change that is affecting millions of households. But unfortunately, many of those needing to switch may not be offered the best available full fibre service by their existing provider, so it’s important to explore what else is out there before committing.

Naturally, CommunityFibre has a vested interest in plugging their own phone and broadband connectivity here. The operator has already deployed their 5Gbps speed full fibre network to cover 1.4 million homes (mostly in London and the South East – inc. 450,000 customers) and aims to reach 2m premises by 2028-2029 (here). Suffice to say, BT (Openreach) and Virgin Media’s alternative digital phone solutions aren’t the only ones available.

However, it is worth remembering that the 2027 date mentioned earlier is only really a strict deadline for businesses, while consumer lines won’t face a hard disconnection on the same date and there will be a temporary Emergency Voice Access (eVAC) solution for those who fail to migrate (here). But even they will still need to switch by 2030, when thousands of older exchanges will start being retired at scale.