The copper phone network now has a hard stop. Openreach, BT Group’s infrastructure arm, has written to the communications providers that use its network warning that legacy public switched telephone network services will be retired on January 31, 2027, and that the deadline will not be postponed. Customers still on PSTN connections at that point are at risk of disruption, the letter says, and Openreach is urging providers to audit remaining analogue services and agree migration plans now.
What remains on the old network is the hard part. Beyond household landlines, PSTN lines still carry point of sale terminals, fire and security alarms, and personal care alarms for elderly and vulnerable people. Households keeping a landline move to a digital voice service plugged into a broadband router; customers without a fibre connection are expected to be moved to a transitional exchange based product that emulates the old line. Openreach has already delayed the deadline once, after the government asked providers not to force vulnerable telecare users across until safeguards were in place, and it has been raising rental charges on legacy business lines to push migration, with laggards now paying roughly double last year’s rate.
The awareness gap is the industry’s own worry. Telecoms analyst Paolo Pescatore of PP Foresight told The Register that Openreach and providers need a far more coordinated campaign reaching customers directly, with targeted letters, calls and door to door support for people who need extra help. Age UK’s charity director Caroline Abrahams said most people have moved without major problems, but nobody who relies on a landline or telecare should be left behind, and the responsibility cannot rest with customers alone.
Openreach’s director of All IP, James Lilley, put the operational point bluntly: the straightforward migrations are largely done, and what is left are the complex connections that underpin critical operations, requiring planning, supplier coordination and testing. Businesses that delay risk disruption and higher costs, because engineering capacity to fix problems will be scarcest in the final weeks. With about 100 days to go, the switch-off has moved from programme milestone to deadline management.