More than 500,000 business lines across the UK still need to migrate before the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) is retired in January 2027.
Many smaller businesses assume they can leave migration until the final months because their estate is relatively simple.
In reality, the size of your business has very little to do with how long migration will take.
For years, the PSTN switch-off felt like tomorrow's problem. There was always another project to prioritise, another budget cycle to navigate and another reason to delay.
Today, that delay is becoming harder to justify.
For years, the PSTN switch-off felt like tomorrow’s problem. There was always another project to prioritise, another budget cycle to navigate and another reason to delay.
Today, that delay is becoming harder to justify. By the end of 2026, some legacy line rentals could cost more than double their 2025 equivalent.
| From: | Openreach Line rental cost increases: |
|---|---|
| 1 April 2026 | +20% |
| 1 July 2026 | +40% (on the already increased price) |
| 1 October 2026 | +40% (again on the already increased price) |
When people think about the PSTN switch-off, they naturally think about phone systems.
In reality, telephony is often only one part of the picture.
Many organisations still rely on analogue connectivity in places they rarely think about until something stops working. These can include:
Because these systems are often managed by different suppliers, departments or facilities teams, they're easy to overlook. And that's where migration projects become more complicated than expected.
The assumption is often that smaller businesses can migrate in a matter of weeks, while larger organisations need longer.
In reality, company size tells you very little about how complex the migration will be.
A business with 20 employees may still have analogue alarm systems, payment terminals, lift lines, CCTV infrastructure and access control systems connected to copper services that haven't been reviewed in years.
By contrast, a much larger organisation may have already modernised most of its estate and only need to replace a handful of remaining services.
The real question isn't:
"How big is the business?"
It's:
"How much is still connected to copper?"
The length of your migration isn't determined by the size of your business. It's determined by the number of hidden dependencies you haven't discovered yet.
Replacing a phone system may be relatively straightforward.
Identifying every service that depends on a PSTN line usually isn't.
Before a migration can happen, businesses need to understand:
How many analogue lines they still have
What services use them
Which suppliers own those systems
Whether replacements are required
What testing needs to take place before cutover
For many organisations, this discovery phase becomes the longest part of the entire project.
Because the infrastructure has quietly accumulated over years, sometimes decades, with very little visibility.
We've seen businesses discover analogue services they didn't even realise existed.
An alarm line maintained by a facilities provider.
A lift emergency phone installed years ago.
A payment terminal still using a copper connection.
A backup circuit nobody remembered was there.
Individually, none of these are particularly difficult to address.
The challenge is finding them before they become a problem. That's why organisations that begin planning early tend to have smoother migrations.
You could replace that old line, tick the box and move on..
But businesses seeing the greatest value are taking a broader view. They're using the opportunity to simplify communications, reduce technical debt and modernise how people connect across the organisation.
That could include:
The goal isn't simply to replace ageing technology.
It's to build a communications environment that's fit for the future.
If you're unsure how prepared your business is, start with these questions:
Do we know every service still connected to copper?
Are any alarms, lifts or access control systems using analogue lines?
Which business-critical services could be affected by the switch-off?
How long would migration realistically take across our estate?
Are we replacing old technology, or improving the way our organisation communicates?
If any of those questions are difficult to answer, now is the time to investigate.