A deadline that almost no business had been told about has just moved. Openreach's special offers for shifting legacy phone lines off the old network were due to close on 31 October 2026. They now run to 31 January 2027, the same day the network itself is switched off. That sounds like breathing room. It is close to the opposite, because the thing due to run out first is no longer the discount. It is engineer and survey capacity, and that does not extend.
The 30-second version
- The discounts were extended. Offers due to close on 31 October 2026 now run to 31 January 2027, per ISPreview, 29 September 2026.
- 31 January 2027: the network is switched off for good, and the discounts now end on the same day. That is roughly fourteen weeks away.
- Legacy line prices have risen deliberately through 2026, so staying put is the expensive option, not the safe one.
- The discount is now the least of it. Migrating still needs a survey, an install slot and testing, and those queues only get longer.
- The lines nobody thinks about are the problem: lifts, alarms, door entry, card machines, fax, franking.
- If you do nothing you may be migrated anyway, onto a basic digital service that may not do what your line currently does.
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What actually changed, and what did not
Openreach has been running a set of special offers to encourage providers to move legacy voice lines off the old copper network before it is switched off. That includes making migrations free for voice-only lines, and discounted terms for moving a line onto SOGEA, which is broadband that does not need a traditional phone line underneath it.
That window was due to close on 31 October 2026. In late September, Openreach extended it: the offers now run all the way to the switch-off date of 31 January 2027. A separate offer, covering lines where the phone and the broadband sit with different providers moving to SOGEA, was brought under the same extended terms. So the cliff edge that was two weeks away has gone.
What has not changed is the work. A migration is still a survey, an install slot, a port and a test, and every one of those sits in a queue. Removing the discount deadline removes a reason to hurry without removing any of the reasons you should.
Behind it sits the date that matters more: 31 January 2027, when the analogue network stops. Everything on it has to be somewhere else by then.
Why nobody has told you
Because the offer is between Openreach and communications providers, not between Openreach and you. It is a wholesale arrangement, so there is no letter, no email campaign, and nothing on your bill that mentions it.
That is worth understanding rather than resenting. It explains why a deadline with real financial consequences for your business has produced complete silence, and it tells you where to direct the question. Your provider knows about this. Whether they have raised it with you is a reasonable thing to judge them on.
A fair question to ask your provider
"Are any of our lines still on the legacy network, what will it cost to move them, and what is the realistic install date if we order today?" Any provider should be able to answer all three in a single reply. If the answer is vague, that in itself is information.
Staying put is the expensive option
There is a common assumption that doing nothing is the cautious choice and migrating is the risky one. On this, it is the other way round.
Openreach has been steadily raising the price of the legacy products it is retiring, with line prices set to roughly double through 2026. That is deliberate. The pricing is designed to make staying on a network that is being switched off progressively less attractive, right up to the point where it stops existing.
So the business that waits is paying more each quarter for a service with a fixed end date, and will then pay more again to move once the migration offers have closed. There is no version of waiting that saves money.
What happens if you do nothing
You do not necessarily get to choose. As the switch-off approaches, lines that have not been migrated can be moved by the industry rather than by you, onto a basic digital replacement service.
That sounds reassuring and is not quite. A basic digital voice service will carry a phone call. What it will not necessarily do is everything your current line quietly does:
- Work in a power cut. An analogue line drew power from the exchange. A digital one depends on your broadband router having power.
- Carry the devices plugged into it. Lift emergency phones, alarm diallers, door entry, telecare and some card machines were built for an analogue signal.
- Keep your configuration. Hunt groups, diverts and the way calls are distributed may not survive a migration nobody planned.
Being migrated to something that technically works is a very different outcome from choosing what replaces your lines. Our guide to what actually replaces the PSTN covers the options properly.
The lines everybody forgets
When we audit a site, the phones on desks are rarely the problem. People know about those. It is the lines nobody has thought about for a decade, often still billed and often still essential.
| Device | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Lift emergency phones | A legal requirement to have a working two-way line. If it stops, the lift should not be in service. |
| Alarm and fire panels | Diallers that call a monitoring centre. Many are analogue only and need a replacement path. |
| Door entry and gates | Often an old line into a panel nobody has opened in years. |
| Telecare and nurse call | In care settings this is a safety system, not a convenience. Plan it first, not last. |
| Card machines, fax and franking | Older terminals and fax machines may not work over a digital line without an adaptor or a different service. |
We have written separately about alarms, lifts and door entry and about care homes and telecare, because both deserve more than a paragraph.
What to do now
- Find out what you still have on the legacy network. Not what you think you have. Ask your provider for a list of every line on the account and what each one is for.
- Walk the building. Lift, alarm panel, lift shaft, gate, meter room, back office. Anything with a cable into a socket is a line to account for.
- Ask what it costs to stay, not just what it costs to move. Set the rising legacy line rental against the new service for the same period. That one comparison usually settles the decision on its own.
- Decide what replaces each line, rather than accepting a like-for-like swap. Some lines should become digital voice, some should move to a mobile or SIM-based path, and some can simply be ceased because nothing uses them.
- Book it. Migration slots get tighter as the deadline approaches, and January 2027 will not move.
Not sure what is still on an old line?
Send us a recent bill and we will tell you what is on the legacy network, what it will cost to move, and what each line should become. No obligation, and we will say if the answer is to do nothing.