Openreach has found a pretty effective way to get businesses interested in the PSTN switch-off in 2027: make the old lines expensive. On October 1, its final scheduled WLR price increase pushed basic wholesale analog-line rental to roughly twice its 2025 level. That doesn’t mean every customer’s bill doubled, but I suspect a few finance teams will suddenly be asking what they’re still paying for.
They’d better ask quickly. In its September 24 update, Openreach counted around 1.2 million remaining analog lines, including connections serving approximately 350,000 business premises. It says roughly 15 million lines have migrated since 2017, but the final stretch looks tricky. On October 15, it warned that 35,000 customers in Northern Ireland still needed to migrate. Openreach’s James Lilley warned:
“The final migrations are likely to be the most complex and business-critical.”
I’d take that seriously. A contact center might have upgraded its agent platform while leaving an old inbound number or emergency route dependent on legacy infrastructure. Good luck explaining those impressive uptime figures when customers can’t get through.
The risk extends well beyond contact centers. Government guidance published October 8 estimated that roughly three-quarters of grouped-living telecare alarms in a sample of alarm-receiving centers were still analog. A failed connection there deserves considerably more attention than another missed SLA.
We’ve already explored why the network layer is a CX problem. Now there’s an expensive deadline attached. BT Wholesale closes new WLR Bulk Migration orders on October 31. That’s a cutoff for one wholesale service, rather than every business migration, but I’d be asking suppliers for their own dates. More importantly, has anyone actually tested the customer-facing connections they’re replacing?
When Is the UK PSTN Switch-Off Date, and Will It Be Delayed Again?
January 31, 2027 remains the UK PSTN switch-off date, and Openreach hasn’t given businesses much reason to expect another extension. Personally, I wouldn’t enjoy explaining to a contact center director that we’d left an important call route untouched because we thought the deadline might change.
There is some history behind that optimism, though. The original end-of-2025 deadline slipped after serious concerns about telecare and vulnerable customers. Understandable, given what was at stake. But treating that decision as a promise of another extension seems rather optimistic.
Openreach’s Juliette Scott did offer an interesting qualification in June, saying there
“won’t be a big bang on 1st February 2027.”
September’s continuity measures explain why. Some eligible connections may survive temporarily, while others face disconnection. I’d be particularly nervous about forgotten inbound numbers or emergency overflow routes.
VodafoneThree offers another warning. Wholesale partners were told migration orders placed after September 30 couldn’t be guaranteed to finish before legacy services were ceased. Formal withdrawal and cease notices were due to begin in October, subject to contracts and customer safeguards. That’s a wholesale-partner timetable, not Vodafone’s consumer deadline. I’d check which provider actually owns each connection.
The Openreach deadline retires PSTN voice and associated WLR services, although copper broadband such as SOGEA can continue. A working router doesn’t guarantee the voice connection survives.
The government’s voluntary telecoms modernisation charter asks signatories to give direct customers at least 60 days’ notice of relevant changes, but existing PSTN programs count as already announced. I wouldn’t bank on another warning letter. I’d want the actual cease notice, supplier cutoff and named owner.
What Happens If a Business Hasn't Migrated Before 31 January 2027?
February 1 might arrive with some old lines still working. I can imagine businesses taking that as permission to relax. I’d be less comfortable if one handled customer calls.
Openreach’s September plan allows some eligible business and residential lines onto Emergency Voice and Access Continuity (EVAc). Wholesale rental is £35 monthly for WLR3 Basic and £38.60 for WLR Premium, not necessarily what customers pay. Linked ADSL, FTTC and G.fast broadband may also survive where technically possible.
Sounds reassuring until you reach the conditions. EVAc is temporary, capacity is limited, and nobody can reserve a place. Openreach also plans to cease single lines that can’t be transferred in batches. It may also drop calling features businesses depend on. I’d ask providers to confirm exactly which numbers, routes and features survive, rather than treating a dial tone as proof of success.
BT Business offers protective migrations, but ISDN, Featureline, multiline services and certain broadband connections are excluded from its automatic process. Those need separate planning and testing. I’d check the products on the carrier contract before assuming every customer-facing line is covered.
There was an uncomfortable reminder about essential connectivity on October 5, when BT acquired TalkTalk and PlatformX out of administration, involving services used by around 2.5 million customers. Ministers intervened over risks to emergency calls, medical alarms and public services. The CMA submitted its report on October 19, but its findings weren’t publicly available as of October 20. It’s a separate issue from PSTN retirement, though the continuity concern feels familiar.
For contact centers, I’d still test every published support number and overflow route. A temporary line surviving February doesn’t prove the replacement works.
Why Did Openreach Raise WLR Prices in October 2026?
Openreach isn’t being particularly subtle about the WLR price increase in October 2026. It wants businesses off the old network, and apparently making the old option more expensive is part of the persuasion. Fair enough, although I’d prefer contact centers to be spending that money on reliable connections they’ll still be using next year.
WLR Basic cost £10.65 a month wholesale in 2025. After staged increases in April, July and October, its basic wholesale rental is now effectively £21.30. Your provider sets the retail price, though, so that doesn’t mean every business’s October bill doubled.
There’s some encouragement on the other side, too. Openreach has extended wholesale migration discounts through January 31, giving providers a financial incentive to move customers before the PSTN switch-off in 2027. Whether those savings reach businesses is another question I’d be putting to the supplier.
Openreach has offered more help on the migration side, too, including free or discounted SOGEA connections for providers and free connections when they move legacy voice-only lines. These are wholesale offers, so I’d still check the business quote, but they do give providers ways to get customers off older services without simply adding another charge.
I actually think the increased charges could do contact centers a favor. Telecom bills have a habit of accumulating mysterious line rentals, especially across multiple sites. Finance might see an easy saving. I’d want IT to establish whether that supposedly redundant circuit still supports a customer service number or backup voice connection before anyone cancels it.
Paying twice as much for an obsolete line is irritating. Losing an important call route because procurement thought it was unnecessary would be considerably worse.
What Business Systems Still Depend on PSTN Analog Lines?
I wouldn’t be surprised if a few contact centers discover their supposedly modern voice setup still has an ancient ISDN trunk doing something important behind the scenes. Perhaps it’s feeding an old PBX, handling overflow calls, or supporting a number nobody thought to include in the last migration.
That’s the trouble with the PSTN business impact. The connections most likely to cause embarrassment aren’t necessarily the ones anyone remembers installing.
Older payment terminal PSTN setups are another concern. Some card machines and EPOS systems still dial out over analog lines. Picture an agent successfully resolving a customer’s order problem, only for the payment to fail because the business forgot to upgrade the terminal. I’d imagine the customer would have a few opinions about that.
I’d also get the payment provider involved in the line audit. IT might own the connection, while the retailer or finance team owns the terminal. A successful network cutover isn’t much use if nobody’s tested a live authorization, a refund and the fallback connection.
Then there are lift emergency phones, alarm signaling, door entry and building-management systems. Openreach has specifically warned businesses to investigate these dependencies before the UK analog phone switch-off. Its September 17 update also identified CCTV backhaul, cash handling and ATM monitoring, lone-worker call points and industrial telemetry. They’re easy to miss in a standard phone inventory.
I’d want to hear the IVR behaving properly, the transfers reaching the right agents, and the fallback route taking calls when the main connection is unavailable. Otherwise, what exactly has the migration achieved?
What Can Telecare Teach Contact Centers About Reliability?
I’d send you to look at Telecare if you still think a completed telecom migration ticket means the service is working. Alarm-receiving centers handle calls people may desperately need answered, and there’s very little room for assumptions about connectivity.
Openreach says more than 70,000 customers have completed its Prove Telecare process, which checks alarms after migration. Encouraging, although Ofcom’s September 14 intervention found potential weaknesses in BT’s protections. As they put it, providers “must identify, protect, and support vulnerable customers.”
BT agreed to improvements, with remaining changes due by November; Ofcom made no formal finding of non-compliance.
