Landline switch off date: Jan. 31, 2027, and 4 checks to do now

The date is January 31, 2027, and Openreach has written to the phone companies that sell services on its network to tell them it is final. Its own customer page puts it plainly: on that day, all traditional phone lines go digital, and anyone who hasn’t moved may find their service limited.

It has slipped before. The industry first planned to finish by December 31, 2025, under a plan announced in 2017. That deadline was pushed back after worries about rural households and vulnerable, often elderly, customers whose telecare devices depend on a working line. This time Openreach is holding firm, even though the campaign group Silver Voices has called for one more delay.

There is a twist worth knowing. Openreach also says there won’t be a single day when everyone is suddenly cut off. One of its directors, James Lilley, said there is no big red button that switches everyone off on January 31. In practice, providers have been moving customers line by line, and tens of thousands are switching each week.

Openreach says about a million copper-based lines remain active across the UK, and around 300,000 of them are in business premises. Since 2017 it has helped move roughly 15 million lines off the old system, so the people left are a small but stubborn group.

London has the largest share of old lines left to switch among the UK’s big cities, according to recent Openreach data. Survey work from a broadband comparison site found that almost half of people asked had no idea the change was coming, and one in seven who had received a warning from their provider admitted ignoring it.

Part of the problem is scams. Lilley said a rise in fraud has made people wary of letters and calls about their phone line, so genuine notices get binned. If you’re unsure whether a message is real, ring your provider on the number printed on your bill, not one given in the letter.

For most households, very little changes in daily use. Your number stays the same, and the new service (BT calls it Digital Voice) runs through your broadband router instead of the wall socket. Providers say it brings clearer calls and better blocking of nuisance calls.

The physical change is simple: the old wall socket stops working, so you unplug the phone’s cable from the wall and plug it into the phone port on your router. Most ordinary handsets work this way. BT also offers an adapter if your router sits somewhere awkward and you want the phone in another room.

The catch is power. The copper network carried its own electricity, which is why old landlines kept working in a power cut. A broadband phone needs the router switched on, so when the power goes, so does the home phone. That is the point MPs raised in a Commons debate in late October, warning that people on islands and in remote areas could lose phone, internet and mobile signal all at once in a storm.

The fix is a battery backup unit, a small box that keeps the router and modem running long enough for essential calls. Phone companies, BT among them, have been handing these out free to vulnerable customers, and they keep a phone working for an hour or more.

1. Ask your provider if your line has moved. If you’ve had a letter about switching, act on it. If you haven’t heard anything and still plug your phone into the wall, call the number on your bill and ask.
2. Move the phone to the router. Once your provider confirms the switch, plug the handset into the router’s phone port and test an outgoing and incoming call.
3. Check anything else on the line. Personal alarms, telecare pendants, home security panels and monitoring kit may need an upgrade. Under an industry pledge called the PSTN Charter, providers agreed not to switch telecare users until their devices work on a digital line, but tell your provider about the device so it isn’t missed.
4. Plan for a power cut. Keep a charged mobile phone handy. If you have no mobile or poor signal, ask your provider for a battery backup.

While you’re on the phone to them, it’s also a good moment to compare broadband deals, since many switches come with an offer to move to full fiber anyway.

Openreach says customers still on copper after January 31 may be moved onto a stopgap called EVAc (Emergency Voice and Access Continuity). It keeps basic calls working for a limited time, but it is voice only. Features such as voicemail, three-way calling and call diversion may not work, and some customers risk losing the connection entirely.

Openreach says it will keep linked broadband running where it technically can, but it describes EVAc as a temporary safety net with limited capacity. For businesses it is also much more expensive than a normal digital line, and rental prices on old ISDN business lines have already gone up, with more rises planned from February 2027.

The lines left are the tricky ones. Openreach says the remaining business connections often link to specialist equipment: card payment terminals, emergency phones in lifts, fire alarm panels, door entry systems and industrial sensors. Some large firms have several suppliers and old circuits nobody wrote down.

Openreach warns that leaving these unmoved could create safety and compliance problems serious enough to close buildings. If you run a shop, a block of flats or an office, audit every device that uses a phone line and get a migration plan from your provider now, not in January.

Ofcom, the UK telecoms regulator, says it expects minimal disruption for most people. It has rules providers must follow during the switch, says it is watching closely, and has already fined one company for putting vulnerable customers at risk during the changeover.