Businesses face soaring costs and disrupted services if they delay, as Brussels pushes for copper networks to be retired across the EU by 2035.
Openreach has warned that fewer than 100 days remain before the UK’s old analogue phone network is permanently switched off on 31 January 2027.
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The BT Group network operator said about one million copper-based lines were still active, including 300,000 at business premises and that failure to migrate these systems to digital alternatives "poses severe operational, safety, and compliance risks".
It is not only home phones that rely on the network. Card payment terminals, lift emergency phones, fire alarm panels, security systems and door entry units could also stop working if they are not moved to digital services in time.
"Businesses and organisations that delay action are making things harder for themselves," said James Lilley, Openreach’s director of All-IP.
"We are urging businesses to act now, audit their remaining analogue services, and work with their communications provider on a migration plan today."
What happens to those who don’t switch?
Openreach doubled rental prices for legacy lines on 1 October, and further rises are planned from February. Customers who have not switched by the deadline may be moved automatically to a temporary, last-resort service that allows only essential calls. The company said this would be significantly more expensive than digital alternatives.
Households that want to keep a landline will not lose it. Instead, the phone will plug into a broadband router and work over the internet.
Those with a phone line but no broadband are a shrinking group, according to the UK regulator Ofcom. BT raised line rental for its landline-only customers by £1 (€1.20) a month from 31 March this year with a guarantee of no further increases for 12 months, while call charges remained the same.
Ofcom said it would monitor BT’s prices for these customers.
Many people have already given up the landline altogether. Ofcom found that just over a million households switched to a broadband-only service in the year ending in July 2025.
In Europe Norway and Spain have already shut down their copper networks and the EU wants to make it mandatory everywhere by 31 December 2035, with only limited exceptions.
Member states would have to submit national plans by 2029 to phase out copper between 2030 and 2035, with safeguards including clear communication about switch-off dates and service continuity.
