BT Group has extended its timeline for transitioning customers off the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) from the original end of 2025 to the end of January 2027. This change is a result of enhancements made to the program to better support vulnerable customers and those with special needs. BT now plans to migrate all customers, including businesses and consumers, from copper to fiber through a single switch by January 2027.
The program’s objective is to address the increasing difficulty of maintaining legacy network equipment and the growing popularity of digital services like Voice over IP (VoIP) and video conferencing. BT is currently in the process of shifting over 14 million traditional phone lines in the UK to digital services. This transition will involve testing processes for migrating customers to fiber services and phasing out copper services and related wholesale line rental products.
Openreach, BT’s broadband division, considers the shift from copper to fiber networks to be as significant as the transition from analog to digital and black and white to color TV. Openreach initially announced in 2019 that the PSTN would be retired by 2025, with new digital services taking its place. By retiring analog phone lines, BT aims to create a simplified network that better meets the needs of our increasingly digital society. As part of this effort, Openreach is upgrading nearly nine million remaining analog lines, including traditional landlines, to digital ones.
To facilitate the transition, Openreach has implemented a Stop Sell process triggered when three-quarters of premises connected to a specific exchange can access full-fiber connections. Customers wanting to switch or upgrade their broadband or phone service will need to choose a digital service through Openreach’s full-fiber network. The company has given communications providers like BT, Sky, TalkTalk, and Vodafone, who use its network, a year’s notice that legacy analog products and services will no longer be sold in such cases.
Openreach estimates that the Stop Sell rules will be activated in over 700 exchanges by the summer of 2024, affecting around six million premises where full fiber is available to around 75% of businesses and homes. Meanwhile, BT Consumer’s division has begun switching zero-use landline customers with broadband connections to its Digital Voice landline service.
Throughout the program, Openreach has had to warn service users with equipment connected to their phone line, such as care or security alarms, to check with their equipment supplier for compatibility with the new fiber network. There have also been concerns about power cuts potentially causing older telephones reliant on local telephone exchanges to lose connectivity. Openreach has advised users to take alternative measures in such cases.
To address these issues and protect vulnerable customers, including telecare users, BT has delayed the switch-off and implemented the UK government’s Charter. Going forward, BT will contact Consumer customers (except for specific cases) to offer the option of switching to a digital landline via full-fiber broadband if available. BT’s Business division encourages early engagement and partnership to ensure equipment compatibility with digital lines.
From this summer, BT Consumer plans to increase non-voluntary migrations of non-vulnerable customers in areas where data sharing agreements have been established. BT is also developing a temporary “pre-digital phone line” product for customers without broadband, including those with special connectivity requirements like alarms and payment terminals.
Additionally, new equipment will be installed in local telephone exchanges to allow non-broadband customers to continue using their landlines until digital alternatives become available, or by 2030 if earlier. Trials have commenced, and a nationwide deployment for eligible customers is expected in the coming months.
BT Business advises its customers, particularly those in critical national infrastructure sectors, to register their interest in testing the temporary phone line product and for guidance on transitioning away from the PSTN.
BT Group’s Chief Security and Networks Officer, Howard Watson, highlights the urgency of migrating customers to digital services due to the fragility of the 40-year-old analog landline technology. Watson emphasizes the importance of managing the migration smoothly while addressing the needs of vulnerable customers through collaborations with local authorities, telecare providers, and government organizations. Watson also urges local authorities and telecare providers to share information about telecare users relying on phone lines.