Copper lines die on 31 January 2027. Check your card reader
Openreach switches off the analogue phone network in January 2027. Card terminals, fire alarms, lift emergency phones and ADSL broadband all sit on it, and most small firms have made no arrangements.
The UK's Public Switched Telephone Network is due to be shut down completely by 31 January 2027.
Openreach and its telecom provider partners will remove the legacy analogue lines as the country moves to an IP-based network. The copper infrastructure has carried national calls for more than 100 years.
The problem for founders is not the desk phone. It is everything else that quietly dials out over a phone line.
Card payment terminals have historically used PSTN as one of their communication options. In older or simpler deployments, and on sites with unreliable broadband, the authorisation call to the payment processor goes down the copper line.
Fire and intruder alarms are the more serious case. Many older commercial systems dial an alarm receiving centre when triggered. No line means no dial, and no dial means no response.
That failure is silent. The panel shows no error, and routine self-test calls fail without any visible sign, so a system with no working path to its monitoring centre looks fine to anyone not checking its communications logs. Maintaining fire detection and alert systems is a legal obligation under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005.
Lifts in buildings with public or commercial occupancy must have an emergency communication system. In most lifts installed or serviced more than a decade ago, that means an analogue phone line connecting the alarm button to a lift monitoring service. The Lift and Escalator Industry Association is looking at new methods of keeping lift users safe through the transition.
Door entry systems have the same exposure. Most modern intercoms can be upgraded to IP operation; older analogue units may need replacement hardware.
Broadband is the one founders miss. ADSL is delivered over the copper phone line, and so is FTTC, where fibre reaches the street cabinet and copper covers the last stretch to the premises. Both stop working when the copper goes.
Research cited in a TechRound report found that 18% of small businesses and 26% of large businesses have some solution in place to mitigate the closure. Almost 10% of businesses do not know the closure is happening. The research was not attributed to a named body.
Telecare and personal alarm pendants are the reason the deadline moved at all. Concern from regulators and the public over remote monitoring for elderly and disabled users pushed the switch-off from the original 2025 date to 2027.
One consequence has no clean fix. Copper lines carry their own small electric current, so an analogue phone works in a power cut. A VoIP handset depends on the broadband router, and dies with it. Ofcom is working on battery backup requirements for providers, and BT is set to supply backup units to vulnerable customers.
For a founder with premises, the work is an audit rather than a purchase. Ask the payment terminal provider whether the terminal uses PSTN and what the upgrade involves. Ask the alarm maintenance provider whether the signalling is PSTN-dependent. Ask the lift contractor the same about every lift.
Newer terminals and alarm panels can often be moved to IP or cellular signalling with a software change or a communications module. Older kit needs replacing, and replacement takes lead time.
There are thirteen months of trading between now and the deadline, and the systems most likely to fail are the ones nobody looks at until they are needed.