The deadline is weeks away - and it is not moving
On 31 January 2027, the UK's analogue telephone network closes for good. For most households, the change has already happened quietly in the background. For organisations running warden call, nurse call, door entry and telecare alarms, it is a very different story.
The original switch-off date was December 2025. It was pushed back to January 2027 largely because of concerns about telecare users - the people who depend on an alarm working when they press the button. That extra time has now been used up. Openreach has said repeatedly that there will be no further extension.
If your estate still includes systems that rely on a copper phone line, this is the last realistic window to act on your own terms. After that, you are no longer planning a migration. You are managing an emergency.
What is actually happening and when
BT is retiring the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), the copper analogue network that has carried UK landline calls for decades. Openreach is withdrawing every wholesale product that depends on it. Anything that signals over an analogue phone line - including warden call, nurse call dial-outs, door entry panels and alarm communicators needs a digital or mobile alternative.
The programme began with more than 16 million lines to move. By late September 2026, around 1.2 million were still waiting, including roughly 350,000 business premises. The easy migrations are done. What's left tends to be the specialist equipment and the complicated sites.
| Date | What Happens |
|---|---|
|
5 September 2023
|
National stop-sell: no new analogue lines can be ordered |
| May 2024 | Switch-off pushed from December 2025 to January 2027, mainly over telecare safety |
| 1 October 2026 | Final wholesale price rise - legacy line rental now roughly double its 2025 level |
| 30 October 2026 | Openreach's exceptions process for delaying a line's migration closes |
| 31 January 2027 | PSTN closes. Last date for migration orders |
| 1 February 2027 | Unmigrated lines move onto a temporary, limited and more expensive emergency service |
| 31 March 2027 | Migration orders scheduled beyond this date are cancelled |
Why this matters more for care and housing than anyone else
For an office, a failed migration means a phone that doesn't ring. For a sheltered scheme or care home, it can mean a resident pulls a cord at 3am and nobody hears it.
Warden call, telecare and alarm equipment communicates using signalling tones designed for analogue lines. Those tones don't always survive the conversion to digital. A unit can appear to work - it powers on, it may even ring - but fail to deliver its alarm correctly to the monitoring centre. That's why Openreach introduced its Prove Telecare service, where engineers test a device on the new digital line before switching the customer over. More than 70,000 telecare customers have been moved this way so far.
The systems most commonly at risk across housing and care estates include:
Warden call and grouped alarm systems in sheltered and extra care schemes
Individual telecare units and pendant alarms
Nurse call systems that dial out to an on-call manager or remote monitoring
Door entry panels that call a concierge, warden or resident
Many of these lines were installed years ago by different contractors and appear on different budgets. Some are recorded simply as ordinary phone lines. They are easy to forget until they go quiet.
Important The government's PSTN Charter protects telecare users by controlling how communications providers migrate lines. It does not upgrade your equipment for you. Housing providers and care operators still own the job of making sure every device has a tested, working digital or mobile route.
Five risks of leaving it to the deadline
1. Engineer capacity runs out. Every organisation that has put this off is now trying to book surveys, installers and Openreach appointments in the same few weeks. Openreach has warned that waiting makes it harder to secure the engineering support needed. Winter is also the busiest period for faults, so capacity is tighter still.
2. You lose your safety margins. Openreach's exceptions process - the route for delaying a specific line's migration - closes on 30 October 2026. After that, the room to manoeuvre shrinks quickly.
3. You pay more for less. Legacy line rental has already roughly doubled against 2025 rates. From 1 February 2027, unmigrated lines move to Openreach's temporary Emergency Voice Access service, which costs providers £35 - £38.60 per line per month wholesale before any retail mark-up. Openreach itself describes it as temporary, limited and more expensive than modern alternatives.
4. A rushed choice locks you in. A procurement squeezed into a few weeks rarely gets proper evaluation. Organisations end up accepting whatever kit is available - often a like-for-like box from a single manufacturer - rather than a system that will serve them for the next ten years.
5. Your duty of care is exposed. If a resident's alarm fails because a line wasn't migrated, the question from CQC, insurers, boards and families will be simple: when did you know, and what did you do? The switch-off has been public since 2017. "We were waiting for the deadline" is not a defensible answer.
The bottom line The emergency fallback is a safety net, not a plan. It's designed for people and organisations that ran out of time — not as an option for those responsible for vulnerable residents.
What to do now: a practical plan for the weeks that remain
There is still time to do this properly - but only if you start this month.
Name one owner. Give one person responsibility across housing, facilities, IT and finance. The most common failure is each supplier assuming someone else is handling it.
Find every line. Pull twelve months of telecoms bills for every scheme and site. A line you're paying for exists, even if nobody can say what it does.
Walk the estate. Check plant rooms, warden offices, receptions and communal areas for anything plugged into a phone socket.
Ask every supplier in writing. Your warden call, nurse call, door entry and telecare providers should each confirm whether their equipment uses an analogue line and what their replacement is. Set a reply deadline.
Prioritise by risk. Life-safety systems - warden call and telecare - come first. Schemes where residents depend on the system as their main emergency contact go to the top of the list.
Test before you trust. Don't assume a device works because it powers on. Every alarm should be tested end to end on its new connection, right through to the monitoring centre.
Plan for power cuts. Analogue lines were powered from the exchange. Digital ones need mains power at the router and hub. Specify battery back-up for life-safety equipment - Ofcom's one-hour minimum is a floor, not a target.
Keep residents informed. Tell residents and families what's changing and when. Unbriefed residents generate avoidable call-outs and anxiety in the first weeks.
Myths worth retiring
"The deadline will move again." It moved once, from 2025 to 2027, to make telecare migration safe. Openreach says the technical barriers have now been resolved and there will be no extension.
"An adapter on the router will do." Plugging analogue kit into a router's phone port may work for a handset. Alarm signalling is different and isn't guaranteed to survive the conversion. Life-safety equipment needs proper testing or a purpose-built digital or mobile replacement.
"The emergency fallback means we can wait." Emergency Voice Access is temporary, limited and costs more. It is there to stop people being cut off, not to give organisations extra time to plan.
How S.E.A Ltd can help before 31 January
S.E.A Ltd works with housing associations, sheltered and extra care schemes and care home operators to move warden call, nurse call and door entry systems safely onto digital infrastructure.
We're manufacturer-independent, so our recommendations are based on what each scheme needs, not on a preferred supplier. We carry ISO 9001, 14001 and 45001 accreditations, and our engineers are experienced in working in live care environments with minimal disruption to residents. We phase installations so no scheme is left without a working system at any point.
Our free PSTN audit is the fastest way to find out where you stand. We'll identify every system at risk across your estate, prioritise them by safety impact, and give you a written report and realistic upgrade plan you can take straight to your board or procurement team.
Book a free PSTN audit with S.E.A Limited
We'll assess your warden call, nurse call and door entry estate, show you exactly what's at risk, and give you a written plan to be fully digital before 31 January 2027 - no obligation.