Openreach has confirmed that the Public Switched Telephone Network — the copper-based phone network the UK has relied on for over a century — will be switched off on 31 January 2027. That’s now under six months away, and Openreach’s own estimate is that around 1.5 million lines nationally, including roughly 350,000 business premises, are still running on it.
Unlike some infrastructure deadlines, this one isn’t moving. Openreach has said the remaining technical barriers to switch-off have been resolved and the January 2027 date is fixed — there’s no extension planned.
What’s actually being switched off
The PSTN carries more than just landline phone calls. Every service that runs over a traditional copper line — ISDN systems, ADSL and FTTC broadband, and often equipment plugged into a phone socket without anyone thinking twice about it — is affected. That includes things easy to overlook until they stop working:
Card payment terminals that dial out over a phone line rather than connecting over broadband or mobile data.
Alarm and security systems that use a landline to report to a monitoring centre.
Lift phones, fax machines, and older PBX phone systems still wired the old way.
Once a line is migrated, or once the network is switched off nationally, any of this equipment still expecting a copper dial tone will simply stop working — not gradually, but the day it’s cut over.
Why this is worth acting on now, not in December
Migrating away from PSTN isn’t a same-day job. It typically means moving to a VoIP-based phone system running over your broadband connection, checking every piece of equipment that currently uses a phone line, and coordinating the switch with your provider — all of which takes longer when hundreds of thousands of other businesses are trying to do the same thing in the final weeks before the deadline.
Openreach has already been contacting businesses that haven’t engaged with the migration, but the responsibility for making sure card machines, alarms and phone systems keep working sits with the business, not the network.
What to check before you’re forced to
Find out whether your current phone line is still PSTN-based, or whether it’s already been migrated by your provider.
List every piece of equipment plugged into a phone socket — not just the phone — and confirm whether it works over broadband/VoIP or needs replacing.
Talk to your provider about timing the switch deliberately, rather than being migrated automatically with no notice.
This is exactly the kind of switch we manage as part of our telephone and broadband service — comparing providers, and handling the migration itself so it’s timed properly around your business rather than rushed in January 2027.
Sources: Openreach, “Just six months left before the UK’s old phone network is switched off”; Openreach, “Unchain your network: the digital world won’t wait”.