The UK’s landline network is older than the NHS. Parts of the copper system that carries home phone calls have their roots in the Victorian era, and the organisation that runs it, Openreach, is now retiring it for good. The public switched telephone network, PSTN for short, closes on 31 January 2027. After that date, landline calls will travel over broadband connections instead of copper phone lines. For most households the change is genuinely minor: same number, usually the same handset, plugged into a different socket. But for a minority of homes, including anyone relying on a care alarm or living somewhere with no mobile signal, it needs a little thought, and soon.
Plenty of people have already been moved without noticing much difference. If you are unsure whether your line has switched yet, one clue is where your phone plugs in: into the router means digital already. Another is simply to run the checks and speed tests on the SpeedTestUK homepage, because a digital landline depends on your broadband working, which makes knowing your connection’s health more than a curiosity from here on.
Why the landline switch off is happening
The PSTN is becoming harder and more expensive to keep alive. The equipment in exchanges is obsolete, spare parts are scarce, and the engineers who understand the oldest kit are retiring. Meanwhile the network carries a fraction of the calls it once did, because most of us reach for a mobile first. Openreach’s answer is to move voice onto the same data networks that already carry everything else. The original deadline was December 2025; it was pushed back to 31 January 2027 largely to give providers more time to identify and protect vulnerable customers, after early migrations exposed real problems, including care alarms that stopped working. Openreach has since confirmed there will be no further extension, and has estimated that roughly 1.5 million lines were still on the old network in mid-2026, so the final push is a big one.
You may also have noticed that you cannot buy a traditional phone line any more. A national stop-sell in September 2023 ended new orders of PSTN-based products, which is why anyone who has signed a new broadband contract, switched provider or even upgraded a package in the last couple of years has probably already been moved to a digital line as part of the deal.
What actually changes in your home
For a straightforward household, the switchover day looks like this. Your provider contacts you in advance, with at least four weeks’ notice, and either arranges an engineer visit or posts out any kit you need. On the day, your phone stops plugging into the BT-style wall socket and plugs into the back of your broadband router instead, sometimes directly, sometimes through a small adaptor the provider supplies. Your number does not change. Your handset usually does not need to change either, though very old phones and some answering machines can be temperamental, and providers will tell you if yours is a known problem.
BT calls its version Digital Voice; other providers have their own brand names for the same underlying change, and we answer the specific BT equipment questions in our post on whether you get a free phone with BT Digital Voice. Virgin Media and KCOM run their own networks with their own migration programmes, so if your phone comes from them, their timetable rather than Openreach’s is the one to watch, though the direction of travel is identical.
The two things that genuinely change: power cuts and alarms
A traditional landline is powered from the exchange, which is why it kept working in a blackout. A digital landline needs electricity in your home to run the router. In a power cut, without backup, it will not work, including for 999 calls. This is the single most important difference, and Ofcom has rules around it. If you rely on your landline and you have no mobile phone, or no reliable mobile signal at home, your provider must offer you a free backup solution, such as a battery unit, that keeps the phone working for at least an hour in a power cut; some providers’ units last considerably longer. You do have to tell them you need it. If nobody in the house has mentioned a lack of mobile signal, they may assume your mobile is the backup.
The second is anything else that uses your phone line. Telecare and personal alarms, the pendants many older people wear, are the headline concern, and Openreach and providers have put extra safeguards in place for telecare users, including a temporary emergency voice-only service (called EVAc) as a last-resort safety net for lines that have not migrated in time. But burglar alarms, health pendants, fall detectors and even some older card machines and fax lines can also depend on the PSTN. If any of these exist in your home, or in the home of a parent you look out for, tell the landline provider and the device supplier before the migration date. Migrations can and should be paused until a safe solution for the device is agreed.
What you should do, and when
You do not need to chase anyone today. The programme is provider-led: the company named on your bill will contact you when your line is scheduled. What you should do is respond when that letter, email or text arrives rather than binning it as marketing. Ignoring it does not stop the switch-off; it just means the change may happen on the provider’s default terms, with the minimum of help.
Three small jobs are worth doing now. First, make sure your provider has up-to-date contact details and knows about anything in the “tell us” category: a care alarm, a disability that means you need help with installation, or a home with no mobile signal. Second, if you are helping an elderly relative, walk through their home mentally for line-powered devices and note them down. Third, if your broadband is unreliable, fix that first or at least report it: once the landline rides on it, broadband faults become phone faults too. It is worth checking which newer networks have reached the address with our broadband availability checker, because a migration is often a natural moment to move onto a faster, more reliable full fibre connection with one of the UK broadband providers serving your street.
For the official picture, Ofcom’s guide, Your landline is going digital, sets out your rights and the support providers must offer, and Openreach has published details of the final safeguards as the PSTN closure approaches, including how broadband services will be preserved where possible for anyone left on the old network at the deadline.
Extension sockets, second phones and other small print
One practical surprise catches many households out. In a typical home, the master socket feeds extension sockets in the bedroom, the kitchen and the study, and a traditional line powers all of them. A digital line does not work that way: the phone service arrives at the router, and only there. Extensions wired into the old master socket will go quiet unless an engineer reconnects them as part of the installation, something you should ask about rather than assume. The standard workaround is a cordless (DECT) phone system: plug the base station into the router and place the satellite handsets wherever the old phones used to be. Most cordless systems sold in the last fifteen years work perfectly well this way, and providers will usually supply an adaptor, and sometimes a handset, if yours does not.
It is also worth knowing that a digital landline comes with a few quiet upgrades. Call quality is usually clearer, nuisance-call blocking is easier for providers to offer, and features that once cost extra, such as voicemail delivered to an app, tend to be bundled. None of that compensates for getting the migration basics wrong, but it does mean the new service is not simply the old one with extra failure points. The failure points are specific, power and line-dependent devices, and both are manageable with a conversation before your date rather than a crisis after it.
Frequently asked questions
When exactly is the landline switch off?
The PSTN closes on 31 January 2027 on the Openreach network. Your own line will almost certainly be migrated before that date, on a schedule your provider sets. They must give you notice, generally at least four weeks, so your personal deadline is the date in their letter, not the national one.
Will I keep my phone number?
Yes. Your number transfers to the digital service, and you keep making and receiving calls in much the same way. If you switch provider at the same time, tell the new provider you want to keep the number and it will be ported as part of the switch.
Do I need broadband to have a landline after the switch off?
Your phone service will run over a broadband connection, but you do not have to become an internet user. Providers offer voice-only digital arrangements for landline-only customers, so ask for one if you do not want or need internet access at home.
What happens if I do nothing at all?
The old network still closes. Providers have protective migration programmes and a temporary emergency voice-only fallback exists for some lines, but these are safety nets, not a plan: features may not work, alarms may not be protected, and you could lose service. Responding to your provider’s contact is the safe route.
Will my existing phone handset work?
In most cases, yes. Most modern corded and cordless phones work when plugged into the router, sometimes via a free adaptor from your provider. Very old handsets and some specialist equipment can be exceptions, which is another reason to talk to your provider before the day rather than after it.
Nothing to panic about, something to prepare for
For most homes, the landline switch off will be a shrug: a letter, a socket swap, and calls carrying on as before. The households it can hurt are the ones it always hurts when infrastructure changes quietly: people depending on alarms, people without mobile signal, people who never open the envelope. If that description fits anyone you know, the kindest thing you can do is start the conversation now. And once your line has gone digital, it is worth running a quick availability and speed check to be sure the broadband underneath your phone is up to the job.
