Openreach has written to communications providers to say the legacy public switched telephone network will be retired on 31 January 2027, about 100 days from now, and that the date will not move. It says the straightforward migrations are mostly done, so what remains is complex and tied to critical operations such as point-of-sale terminals and care and security alarms. Commercial customers on legacy lines now pay double the rental of a year ago. For anyone with old business systems that depend on analogue lines, the deadline is close, and the plan has already been pushed back at least once.
