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The old copper telephone network is being switched off across the UK by 31 January 2027, and every home phone service is moving to a digital one that runs over broadband. If you still have a phone plugged into the little square socket on the wall, this will affect you at some point in the next few months — your provider will write to you about it if they have not already.
For most households the change is small. For a minority it matters a great deal, and those are the people this guide is written for.
What actually changes
Your telephone number stays the same. Your provider will normally send a new router (or tell you to use the one you have), and instead of the handset plugging into the wall socket it plugs into the back of the router. The GOV.UK guidance describes it exactly that way: the change "may be as simple as plugging your phone into your broadband router rather than the socket on the wall". Calls sound the same or better; the bill usually does not change.
Extension sockets around the house stop working unless the provider or an engineer connects them to the new service, so if you have phones in three rooms, say so before the switch. Cordless (DECT) phones with one base station are the easiest — only the base needs plugging in.
The one real difference: power cuts
An old analogue landline was powered from the telephone exchange, so it worked when the lights went out. A digital landline needs the router to be powered, so in a power cut it does not.
For that reason the government and Ofcom require every provider to have at least one solution that keeps you able to call the emergency services for a minimum of one hour during a power cut — typically a battery back-up unit for the router, or a mobile-based fallback — and to supply that free of charge to customers who are at risk because they depend on the landline. If you have no mobile signal at home, live alone, have a health condition, or simply feel you would be stranded without the phone, tell your provider in those words. It is a recognised category and they have a duty to act on it.
If there is a care alarm or telecare pendant in the house
This is the important bit. Pendant alarms, fall detectors, door sensors and the "call the monitoring centre" boxes that many older people have were built for the old network. Some work perfectly on the new one; some do not; some appear to work but fail to dial out when it counts.
The big providers signed a charter in December 2023 committing not to move telecare users to the digital service without a working solution in place, and a Telecare Action Board of around 30 organisations was set up in January 2024 to identify people at risk. But all of that only works if the provider knows the alarm exists. So:
- Tell the phone provider there is telecare in the house, even if you think they already know, and even if the account is in someone else's name.
- Tell the alarm company or the council that supplies it that the line is going digital, and ask them in writing whether the unit is compatible or needs replacing. Many are being swapped for units with their own mobile SIM, which also solves the power-cut problem.
- After the switch, test the alarm by pressing the pendant and confirming the monitoring centre answers. Do not assume.
If you are the son, daughter or neighbour who sorts these things out for someone, this is the phone call worth making this month rather than next year.
If there is no broadband at all
A small number of homes have a landline and no broadband — often older people who never wanted the internet. You will not be forced onto a full broadband package just to keep a phone. Providers are offering dedicated landline-only digital services, and the government has said those interim products will remain available until 2030 for people who need them. Ask for "a landline-only service"; it exists.
A simple checklist
- Wait for your provider's letter, then reply to it — do not ignore it. You can also ring and ask when your switch is planned.
- Tell them about anything else that uses the phone line: care alarms, a monitored burglar alarm, a fax, an older Sky box, a lift phone in a block of flats.
- Ask about power-cut cover if you rely on the landline, and ask for it to be free if you are in the at-risk group.
- On the day, plug the handset into the router, make a test call, and test the alarm.
- If you have several extension phones, ask before the switch how they will be connected.
When we can help
Most of this is between you and your provider, and it should cost nothing. Where we come in is the tangle: the router is in the wrong room, the cordless base is not where the phone needs to be, the alarm unit needs replacing and nobody is sure with what, or a relative needs someone patient to sit with them and make it work. That is a single visit for us across Richmond, Kingston and London, and we will leave a written note of what was done so the family knows.
The business version of this guide — alarms, card terminals, lift phones and phone systems — is here.