If your business still relies on traditional phone lines, there’s a date you need to know about: by 2027, the UK’s Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) will be switched off for good. The copper network that has carried British phone calls for over a century is being retired, and every line that depends on it will stop working.
What exactly is being switched off?
The PSTN is the analogue network behind traditional landlines — and behind more services than most businesses realise. Alongside your office phone lines, the switch-off affects anything that plugs into a copper line: older broadband products like ADSL and FTTC, fax machines, door entry systems, lift emergency lines, CCTV connections, and card payment terminals.
Openreach has already stopped selling new PSTN-based services, and exchanges across the country — including here in East Anglia — are being migrated in phases. Waiting until the deadline isn’t a strategy; it’s a queue.
What happens if you do nothing?
Lines that haven’t been migrated by the switch-off date will simply stop working. For a business, that can mean missed calls and lost orders, broken card machines, alarm and emergency lines going silent, and a scramble to replace equipment at the worst possible moment — alongside everyone else who left it late.
Why this is actually good news
This isn’t just an upgrade being forced on you — it’s a genuine chance to modernise how your business communicates. Digital, internet-based phone systems (VoIP) are faster to set up, cheaper to run and far more capable than the analogue lines they replace. Think auto-attendants that greet every caller professionally, calls that follow you from desk to mobile to laptop, voicemail delivered to your email inbox, and call reporting that shows you exactly how your team handles enquiries.
Most businesses we migrate end up with more capability for less monthly spend than their old lines and ISDN circuits were costing.
What are the alternatives?
The right replacement depends on how your business uses its phones. A cloud phone system such as Horizon or Xelion suits teams that want the full feature set. For micro businesses that just need a simple, professional line, PhoneLine+ replaces a single analogue line with an app-based digital one. And because every digital phone system depends on your internet connection, the switch-off is also the right moment to review your business broadband.
How to prepare — a simple checklist
- Audit your lines. List every service that uses a phone line — don’t forget alarms, lifts, door entry and card terminals.
- Check your broadband. VoIP needs a reliable connection; if yours struggles today, fix that first.
- Choose your replacement system. Match features to how your team actually works.
- Plan the migration. Number porting, hardware and training — sequenced so you’re never without a working line.
- Don’t wait for 2027. Early movers choose their timing; late movers take what’s left.
Ready when you are
Cedaro has been guiding Norfolk businesses through the switch-off with zero-downtime migrations — numbers ported, teams trained, old kit retired on schedule. If you’d like to know exactly what the PSTN switch-off means for your setup, book a free communications audit or call us on 01603 777 770. We’ll map what you have, what’s at risk and what it should cost — with no obligation.
