Openreach extend discounts to help migrate legacy UK phone and broadband lines
Network operator Openreach has today announced that they’ve extended a number of special discounts to help support ISPs as they migrate customers off the old Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). The previous offers were due to end on 31st October 2026 and will now run all the way until the final switch-off date on 31st January 2027.
Broadband, phone, telecare providers, councils and consumers are currently working feverishly to migrate 1.2 million remaining lines before the deadline (inc. 350,000 business lines). 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).
As part of this the network operator has been providing retail internet and phone providers with free or discounted connections for migrations from WLR (inc. voice-only WLR Solus) products to modern equivalents, such as SOGEA (data-only FTTC broadband) and MPF (fully unbundled) / SOTAP lines. As above, the latest industry briefing confirms that these offers will now run right up until the deadline.
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However, the operator confirmed last week that remaining phone and broadband lines won’t face a hard disconnection on 31st January 2027. Customers in this boat will instead eventually be placed on a temporary Emergency Voice Access (eVAC) solution. The eVAC is more expensive and lacks some features, thus it’s a last resort solution that customers will hopefully want to avoid.
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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“Broadband, phone, telecare providers, councils and consumers are currently working feverishly to migrate 1.2 million remaining lines before the deadline”
Is there any information about how quickly these lines are being migrated? Or has everyone at this point got their head in the sand?
Government and Ofcom could allow Openreach to extend the deadline for PSTN switch off until 31 January 2029 and reduce fees to ISPs during the extended transition phase.
BT does not want the deadline to be extended, nor is there a pressing need to extend.
It is Openreach that wants to close the PSTN down, they have no interest in extending deadlines. Existing exchange equipment is running on borrowed time as it is.
The PSTN will not last that long. The chance of catastrophic failure if the deadline was allowed to be extended further is approaching certainty.
As well as all of the above, BT and Openreach are already offering what Serf wants. PDPL and EVAC are the medium term stopgaps that will allow some existing analogue phone services to continue into the 2030s. If anything it should cost more than the PSTN did.
There’s also nothing that prevents the likes of Sky or TalkTalk to continue to provide similar services on their own exchange equipment.
I had an email from BT recently saying if I didn’t contact them within 5 to 7 days my broadband would be disconnected. Anyway on the morning of the 7th day they disconnected it lol. I asked if I could keep my FTTC and just switch to digital voice as didn’t want a visit from an engineer at the moment. Told had to have FTTP as well. Booked appointment for engineer and the agent restored my broadband.
OR have had to offer PDPL in the lack of response from Care, Lifts etc.
eVAC has to be there so that a unwitting consumer can still ring the emergency services. At least some people are anticipating the issues.
My view is Ofcom should have been doing more to monitor exactly what suppliers and organisations were dragging their feet and possibly imposed fines. Especially when they were given an extra year.
The costs of delay and uncertainty of volumes have been placed back on Openreach and BT and guess who is paying for it.
I’d like to see a breakdown of these customer numbers. How many are BT retail customers and how many are other providers.
Has BT finished migrating it’s own customers?
BT say they are at 95% of UK Customers, still a lot to go.
@Meadmodj
Do Ofcom even have any power or remit to monitor those non CP/ISP “…suppliers and organisations…” who are foot-dragging?
@An engineer
A significant issue is those folk with WLR3 voice from BT Retail and ADSL/GEA-FTTC from a different ISP.
These folks are often elderly and want to keep their landline number.
Ofcom should have mandated a robust process for this type of split migration yonks ago, to encourage the elderly and/or hesitant to switch to VoIP.
@Not quite so Bizzie Lizzie says
Well said, it should all have clearly communicated publically, press and media at the out set, and sensibly engaged those somewhat neglected by society. It’s not something they wan’t or need over what they had, and certainly not at increased cost, well done BDUK and OfCon, end up suffing these more sensitive customers, didi someone not think ‘suportive inclusion’?.
Openreach will be billing WLR3 for any remaining assets so will have exact data on who has what left and their rate of switching, but beyond any direct Openreach customers will be various other wholesalers and resellers. So the volumes with each entity that bills on an end user will be more obscure.
With 1.2m lines remaining over 5,500 exchanges, the average is just over 200 assets per exchange but some larger exchanges will have far more, and rural ones maybe just a handful. Openreach will be desperate to turn this kit off to save the cost of power and having to maintain an obsolete network that with such few lines must now be loss making.