Openreach says 300,000 business lines are still on copper before PSTN ends

Openreach says 300,000 business lines are still on copper before PSTN ends

1 November 2026: Openreach has told communications providers and UK businesses that the Public Switched Telephone Network will be decommissioned for good on 31 January 2027, and that about one million copper lines are still active, 300,000 of them in business premises. Services still running over those lines when the network closes risk what Openreach calls "sudden and permanent disruption".

Not yet independently verified. The Openreach release carries no publication date; we read it on 1 November, and its "fewer than 100 days" wording places it in the last week of October. The regional figures are Openreach's own and we have not seen them checked by Ofcom. We will update this when it can be confirmed, and remove this note.

The lines that are left are the hard ones

Openreach says most organisations have already moved to digital services, and that the ordinary business phone line is a simple upgrade. What remains, in its words, are "legacy circuits connected to specialist infrastructure" that need investigation, testing and sometimes new equipment. Large multi-site organisations are singled out because they may have several suppliers and circuits nobody has documented.

The release lists the systems it sees still relying on the old network:

• payment terminals (EPOS) and cash handling systems;
• lift emergency telephones and auto-diallers;
• fire alarm communication panels and security monitoring;
• building access controls, automated gates and door entry units;
• industrial telemetry and building energy management systems.

For a facilities or IT manager, that list is the audit. A card terminal or a lift phone often sits on a line that nobody in the finance or IT team pays for directly, which is why these are the lines that survive every round of phone system replacement.

James Lilley, Director of All-IP at Openreach, said: "Businesses and organisations that delay action are making things harder for themselves." He urged firms to "audit their remaining analogue services" and agree a migration plan with their provider.

Where the copper is

Openreach gives a regional count of remaining legacy lines:

• London and South East: 250,473
• Wales and Midlands: 233,033
• Northern England: 207,135
• Wessex: 156,141
• Scotland: 112,794
• East Anglia: 99,050
• Northern Ireland: 32,809

Those figures add up to about 1.09 million, which matches the "approximately one million" in the release.

Staying on copper already costs more

The final step of Openreach's announced rental rises for its WLR basic product, other WLR variants and legacy ISDN services took effect on 1 October 2026, which Openreach says doubled the 2025 rental price for legacy lines. It adds that further rises are planned from February 2027. On the other side, it is offering communications providers free or discounted connections when they move customers to SOGEA or migrate voice-only lines.

The date is also fixed. Openreach's switch-off page says that on 31 January 2027 "all traditional phone lines will be going digital", and The Register reports that Openreach wrote to providers this week saying there would be no extension.

What happens to a line nobody moved

From 31 January 2027, customers who have not moved may be transferred automatically to EVAc, the Emergency Voice and Access Continuity service. Openreach describes it as a limited, temporary, last resort that keeps access to essential calls and, where it can, linked broadband. It is also, Openreach says, significantly more expensive than the digital alternatives.

A business that only finds out about an alarm panel or a lift line when EVAc kicks in will be paying the higher price for a service that may not carry the signal the equipment needs. The sensible order is to list every analogue connection now, then ask the alarm, lift and payment suppliers which of their devices still dial out over copper.

Our VoIP category lists 15 products and our unified communications category 17, for teams replacing the voice side of the estate.

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Sources

• Openreach: Openreach warns businesses: fewer than 100 days left to move off the old analogue phone network (read 2026-11-01), 1 November 2026
• Openreach: Switching off the PSTN across the UK (read 2026-11-01), 1 November 2026
• The Register: Landline phones will switch off across Britain in 100 days, no extensions, 1 November 2026