“Openreach has issued a stark reminder to customers that the legacy phone network is being officially switched off on January 31, and says the deadline will not be postponed.
The infrastructure arm of BT Group, Britain’s biggest telecoms biz, circulated the warning this week in a letter to comms providers that use its network to deliver their services.
It informs them that any customers still on legacy public switched telephone network (PSTN) connections are at risk of disruption when these are retired at the end of January, 2027.
The switch-off could affect businesses and consumers alike. Beyond the plain old telephone, systems that rely on PSTN connectivity include point-of-sale terminals, fire and security alarms, and personal care alarms for elderly and vulnerable people.
The move is part of a wider government scheme to get the UK onto all-digital high-speed networks running on fiber-optic infrastructure, and the legacy phone service – with its dependency on copper cabling – was standing in the way.
Many households have now ditched landline handsets and instead use only mobile phones, yet for those who still want a landline, the changeover means plugging the phone into the back of a broadband router to access a Digital Voice service.”
