PSTN Switch Off guide for facilities managers

For over a hundred years, copper wire has been the backbone of the UK’s telecommunications. Connecting all of our most vital services, from schools to hospitals and emergency services. These wires power everything from the smart meters in our homes, the card machines in our stores, and the equipment that keeps our offices working. 

During this time, all of these devices have run off BT’s copper-based public switched telephone network (PSTN) - an analogue system that connects via specific phone numbers. But after operating for over a century, the PSTN has become outdated and difficult to maintain, with both the parts and the skills needed to install them increasingly difficult to source. Which is why new digital services like Voice over IP (VoIP) - where voice calls are transmitted the same way that broadband works, are being implemented.

With all of this innovation, the PSTN is officially being retired on January 31st, 2027, following years of work by Openreach to remove all technical barriers to migration. But, as we enter the final countdown, there are still around a million lines on the PSTN network that need to migrate, with over 870,000 serving residential premises, and a further 300,000 serving business premises, with significant knock-on effects for any facilities managers responsible for these premises. 

While there is a common misconception that the PSTN just supports landline services, as facilities managers often discover, it underpins far more. It is the hidden backbone of many essential safety, security, and building management systems. For facilities managers, this switch-off could have a critical impact on their duties to protect service charge value and provide the best facilities services possible for their residents. 

Facilities managers are uniquely aware of just how much work goes into the maintenance of a property, whether it be residential or commercial. But what might have gone unnoticed is just how many of the essential devices that they are responsible for could be reliant on analogue copper lines. These include:

• Facility & Building Safety Infrastructure: Devices such as the emergency call buttons within elevators that autodial to connect trapped passengers with 24/7 monitoring centres could rely on copper lines. Similarly, so could the emergency intercoms located in stairwell refuge areas and accessible toilets designed to allow vulnerable occupants to call for aid in the event of an evacuation. Fire panels also often use standard phone lines reliant on copper to audio-dial Alarm Receiving Centres (ARCs) or local emergency services when triggered. 

• Building Security & Access Controls: Most security panels use analogue signalling via copper lines to send alert signals to remote monitoring stations during break-ins. Older door entry keypads and visitor barriers may also rely on copper telephone lines to ring the designated desk when a visitor arrives. Similarly, security camera setups often use dial-up modems reliant on copper lines to transmit alerts or feed video clips off-site after hours. 

• Building Management & Telemetry: Older Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC), boiler, and environmental control systems that dial out to external engineers or monitor servers in the event of system faults could be reliant on these lines. As could be water, gas, electric, or fuel tank telemetry devices that dial out regularly to report usage or fuel levels to service providers. 

• Operations & Office Equipment: Older dial-up card readers commonly used in retail, reception or cafeteria settings often process transactions over copper phone lines. And franking machines, used in some offices to weigh mail, calculate postage, and print prepaid postage labels, often connect via an analogue line to download postage updates. As often do the fax machines and dial-up modems still in use in some healthcare, legal, and operational offices for secure document transmission. 

And it is not just connectivity that the PSTN network switch-off can impact. The older copper PSTN lines also carry their own low-voltage electricity through the line, often serving as both the connectivity and power source for some devices. In these instances, migration does not end with the transition to VoIP, but only after the installation of backup battery systems or cellular failover to ensure operations are maintained even during local power cuts. 

Financially, the costs of failing to migrate should also be a significant concern for facilities managers. A crucial part of their role includes protecting the value of the service charge, ensuring that operations are being run effectively and cost-efficiently. With premises leaving migration to the last minute facing higher charges, facilities managers need to act promptly. As previously confirmed by Openreach, a tiered price increase is already in place for those on the legacy PSTN-dependent products. In most cases, it is already cheaper today to be on the new all-IP products than the older, copper-reliant offering. Previous price increases occurred on April 1st and July 1st 2026, with the final set to take effect from October 1st 2026 - after which, the rental cost of legacy lines will have effectively doubled when compared to the 2025 rates.

Beyond these costs, facilities managers could also be liable for business interruption claims as a result of a mishandled PSTN migration. For those that work with commercial tenants who suffer operational downtime, direct business loss claims could be passed back to them if they are deemed to have failed to maintain basic building infrastructure.

But ahead of the switch-off, the only practical additional costs that facilities managers currently face are increased prices, likely coming via their Communications Provider (CP). To avoid more costs later down the line, facilities managers need to engage with their CPs to investigate the status of their PSTN migration, and to get it started if it is not already. They can also access Openreach’s free testing laboratories to bypass the bottlenecks created by inactive CPs. 

The switch-off also brings legal and compliance implications that facilities managers need to consider. These mostly concern safety equipment and insurance compliance. Alongside general health and safety regulations, standards around lift emergency services as well as fire and security alarms are the most likely to be impacted by the switch-off. 

• General Health & Safety - Regulations such as the Health and Safety at Work Act require businesses to have control measures and risk assessments in place. Leaving lifts or alarms on a withdrawing network may be seen as a failure to have reasonable controls and safety measures in place. 

• Lift Emergency Systems - Regulations like BS EN 81-28 and the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations require passenger lifts to have a 24/7 monitored two-way comms system in use for an emergency. A mismanagement of the PSTN switch-off could impact these systems and be seen as failure to manage foreseeable safety risks.

• Fire Safety - The  Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 requires that the ‘responsible person’ (in this instance, the facility manager) maintains all fire-fighting equipment and life-safety systems. If a fire alarm panel or a sprinkler auto-dialler loses its signalling path when the copper line is disconnected, the system becomes non-compliant.

• Breach of Lease: Both commercial and residential leases legally bind facilities managers to provide functional common services such as working lifts, fire systems, etc. Any failure to maintain these may give leaseholders and tenants grounds to seek injunctions, claim damages for business interruption, or withhold service charges. 

Because the transition affects critical infrastructure, Facilities Managers should consult with compliance, insurance or legal professionals to understand their exact obligations and requirements.

In January 2027, the UK’s digital landscape will change forever. Facilities managers should not wait for this deadline, or for their communications providers to reach out.

Facilities managers who believe they may be impacted, or are unsure about their current PSTN status, should take action now and follow the Review, Test, Switch Process. 

Review 

Firstly, facilities managers should start by reviewing their premises to identify any equipment or devices relying on PSTN. Rather than assuming that their CP has done the necessary work, providers must reach out to them to double-check. And they must carry out checks physically on location too, tracing every wall jack, alarm panel, lift shaft, and door terminal to map any hidden copper connections on the premises. 

Test

Any unmigrated hardware can be tested in Openreach’s free labs to verify its full operational performance on a digital IP network before any commitment to line switches is made. To find out more or to book a visit, click here: Test Lab

Switch 

Once certain that their equipment is compatible, facilities managers should migrate their premises to a digital solution as soon as possible ahead of the switch-off on January 31st, 2027. Openreach is offering a range of resources to help navigate this transition, including support for edge cases and temporary solutions where needed. As part of this switch, facilities teams on site must ensure all modern IP routers are fitted with battery backup units rated for at least one to four hours of continuous operation during mains power cuts across the premises they manage. 

To minimise any disruption caused by the migration, facilities managers should coordinate directly with their CP on behalf of building residents to schedule off-peak migrations in order to minimise disruption to residential homes or businesses on site.