Openreach closes the PSTN on 31 January 2027, and has said there will be no extension. With four months to go, the remaining work is completing migrations rather than planning them: identifying the customers and devices still on copper, booking the work while engineering capacity allows, and explaining the change on the bill once customers move to IP products.
This guide covers where the migration stands, what happens to lines still on Wholesale Line Rental (WLR) after the deadline, and the billing changes that follow a move from analogue lines to SIP trunks and hosted PBX.
Key Takeaways
- The PSTN closes on 31 January 2027, with no extension to the deadline (Openreach, 2026)
- Around 1.2 million lines, including about 350,000 business premises, were still to migrate in September 2026 (ISPreview, 2026)
- WLR basic rental doubled through 2026, from £10.65 to £21.30 a month ex VAT after the October rise
- Lines not migrated by the deadline move to Emergency Voice Access from 1 February 2027, a limited fallback with higher wholesale prices, not a substitute for migration
- Alarms, lift phones, telecare and older payment terminals often sit on the same copper line and need checking separately
Key terms in this article
What is Emergency Voice Access?
Emergency Voice Access (EVAc) is Openreach’s temporary fallback for lines still on WLR after 31 January 2027. It provides a limited voice service as a safety net, at wholesale prices of £35 a month for WLR3 Basic and £38.60 for WLR Premium, ex VAT, from 1 February 2027.
Where the Migration Stands
Openreach reported around 1.5 million lines still on legacy copper in July 2026, falling to about 1.2 million by September, of which roughly 350,000 were business premises. Its guidance to businesses has been consistent: speak to the service provider now, establish which services are affected, and have a migration plan in place well before January, because engineering support becomes harder to secure close to the deadline (ISPreview, 2026).
For a reseller, the customers still to move are often the ones with the least obvious reason to: a single analogue line in a small office, a site with an alarm or lift phone on copper, or an account that has not been reviewed in years.
What Happens After 31 January 2027
Openreach has said there will not be a single moment of disconnection on 1 February. Instead, lines still on WLR are expected to move to Emergency Voice Access from that date. In September 2026 Openreach set its wholesale price at £35 a month for WLR3 Basic and £38.60 for WLR Premium, ex VAT, and said that broadband on those lines would be maintained where technically possible, with lines that have broadband moved from mid-April 2027 (ISPreview, 2026).
EVAc is a safety net with a limited service and a higher cost, and earlier reporting suggested business lines should not rely on the same protection as consumer lines. Treat any business customer still on WLR in January as a migration that has run out of time, rather than one that can wait.
WLR Pricing Through 2026
Openreach raised WLR rental in three steps to encourage migration: by 20% in April 2026, and by a further 40% of the original price in each of July and October (Comms Council UK, 2025). Basic rental that was £10.65 ex VAT is now £21.30. Our post on the 2026 WLR price rises covers passing those increases on, and the Ofcom rules that apply.
Services Beyond the Phone Line
The voice service is the obvious dependency. The others are easier to miss, because they belong to a different supplier or were installed long ago:
- lift emergency phones
- door entry systems that dial out
- monitored intruder alarms and fire panels that call a monitoring centre
- telecare alarms in residential and supported housing
- older card payment terminals
- fax and franking machines
Openreach offers a migration service for telecare users so that health devices keep working. For other devices, the customer’s installer or monitoring company usually needs to replace or adapt the equipment. Our PSTN hidden costs post covers these in more detail. Asking about them when discussing a voice migration avoids a failed alarm being the first sign of a missed dependency.
What Changes on the Bill
Moving a customer from analogue lines to SIP trunks and hosted PBX changes the structure of the invoice:
- Rental becomes channels and seats. A line rental becomes a per-channel charge for concurrent calls and a per-seat charge for each hosted PBX user, so a ten-person office might have eight channels and ten seats.
- Inclusive minutes appear. Hosted packages often include UK landline and mobile minutes, so itemised calls show against an allowance rather than as individual charges.
- Numbers are charged separately. On IP, numbers and DDI ranges are rented separately from the service that carries the calls.
A customer used to a single line item for “phone” may need these changes explained with the first new invoice. A short note mapping the old line to the new components answers most questions before they are asked. The SIP trunks and hosted PBX billing post on billingplatform.uk covers how each model is rated.
Contracts and Price Rises
Where a customer moves to a new IP contract, Ofcom’s pounds-and-pence rules apply to residential and small business customers: any planned in-contract price change must be stated in pounds and pence, with its date, at the point of sale. The pounds-and-pence guide on billingplatform.uk sets out the requirements.
Priorities for the Remaining Months
- Identify the customers still on WLR or ISDN from your service records, and confirm what else each site has on copper.
- Book migration work early. Engineering and number-porting lead times lengthen as the deadline approaches.
- Prepare the billing changes in advance. Set up the channel, seat and number charges for migrated customers so the first IP invoice is correct.
- Brief your support team on the non-voice devices, so customers asking about alarms or lifts are pointed to the right installer.
- Use the migration conversation as a review. A customer moving to IP is also choosing a new package and contract term, which makes it a natural point to review their requirements.
How SAFE Billing Platform Helps
SAFE rates legacy line rentals and IP products in the same billing run, so customers part-way through migration can have both on one invoice. Per-channel and per-seat charges, inclusive minutes and number rentals sit alongside existing rentals, and tariff changes apply from their effective dates with pro-rating. For identifying the customers still to migrate, SAFE CRM’s optional Base Explorer, in early access, supports product-led reviews of services marked as legacy. The billing run guide covers the monthly cycle.
Frequently Asked Questions
When does the PSTN switch off?
Openreach closes the PSTN on 31 January 2027 and has said the deadline will not be extended. Lines still on WLR after that date are expected to move to Emergency Voice Access from 1 February 2027.
What is Emergency Voice Access?
Emergency Voice Access (EVAc) is a temporary fallback for lines not migrated by the deadline. It provides a limited voice service at higher wholesale prices: £35 a month for WLR3 Basic and £38.60 for WLR Premium, ex VAT. It is a safety net, not a migration path, and business customers should not plan around it.
Do VoIP-only resellers need to do anything?
Your direct exposure is small if all your customers are already on SIP trunks and hosted PBX. Customers may still have alarms, lift phones or payment terminals on copper lines supplied by someone else, and those devices need moving before the deadline.
To review how a customer base part-way through migration would bill in SAFE, arrange a demonstration.