PSTN switch-off checklist for small businesses

The PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) is the UK’s traditional analogue phone network — the copper-line technology behind old-style landlines, sometimes sold as WLR line rental. Openreach is retiring it and moving voice calls onto digital, internet-based services. In practice it means traditional analogue landlines will stop working, so any number that relies on one needs to move to a digital service beforehand.

Openreach is switching off the UK’s analogue PSTN network on 31 January 2027. After that date, traditional analogue landlines will no longer work and phone numbers need to be served over a digital service instead. Because porting a number takes time, it’s worth moving well before the deadline rather than waiting until the network is switched off. This date is set by Openreach and applies UK-wide.

No — you don’t have to. Although the analogue line itself is going away, your number can be kept by porting it to a digital service like LineHQ before the switch-off. Standard single-number porting is included and usually completes within a couple of weeks, and the number keeps working throughout. Once moved, it lives in the cloud and forwards to the phone you already use, so you keep the number without the old line.

Not a traditional analogue one. Since the PSTN network is being switched off on 31 January 2027, keeping an old copper landline just to hold a business number no longer makes sense. A virtual line does the same job — it keeps your number and rings your phones — without any physical line or its rental. You can move across whenever suits you before the deadline.

Port it to LineHQ before the analogue network is switched off. You give us the number and your current provider’s account details, and we arrange the transfer. Standard single-number porting is included, the number keeps working throughout and switches to LineHQ’s forwarding on completion, usually within a couple of weeks. From then on it rings your phone or team over the internet, with no analogue line involved.

Usually, yes. Once your number is on LineHQ there’s no physical line and no physical line rental to pay — the number lives in the cloud and rings phones you already own. Packages start at £4.99 a month with prepaid calling credit, so you only pay for the forwarding minutes you use, and there’s no contract. For many businesses that’s well below what an analogue line and its rental cost.

For most single business lines, porting to LineHQ completes within a couple of weeks, though the exact timescale depends on your current provider. Your number keeps working normally right up to the switch-over, so there’s no downtime. With the analogue network being switched off on 31 January 2027, starting the port in good time leaves plenty of margin before the deadline.

If your number sits on an analogue line and nothing is moved, it’s at risk when the PSTN network is switched off on 31 January 2027. Moving early avoids any gap: port the number to LineHQ beforehand and it simply carries on, ringing the phone you already use over the internet instead of the old line. A standard single-number port normally takes about two weeks, so there’s little reason to leave it late.