The landline phone digital switch over is being rolled out from around now to be completed by 2027. This only affects landlines. Look up the PSTN switch-off! The old technology that powers landline telephones in the UK will be switched off in 2025. Landline operators in the UK will switch every home phone in the UK to an internet-based connection instead of a traditional copper-wire landline
It's arguably the biggest social project since analogue television was retired some 10 years ago: the UK's telephone network is also going digital. The telecoms industry has even set a deadline that's backed by the UK government – the old copper network will be switched off at the end of 2025. These changes will affect everyone who has or still uses a landline and they'd like to keep using; soon these will only work via a broadband connection instead referred to as 'VoIP' (VoIP, in full is "Voice over Internet Protocol") PSTN stands for public switched telephone network – it's the copper wire phone network that has delivered analogue landline phone services for several decades inherited from the old post office. The plan is for it to be switched off at the end of 2025 and for all landline services to be digital. Estonia and the Netherlands have already switched off their PSTNs, France, Germany and Japan are also in the process of winding theirs down. The demise of the PSTN is linked to the roll-out of full fibre broadband in the UK, although the two aren't on the same timeline. While phone services will no longer use the copper network by the end of 2025, the aim is for full fibre coverage to reach 85% in the same year and I believe 100% by 2027.
If you weren't aware of plans to switch off the PSTN (public switched telephone network), you aren't alone. When telecare providers (who look after elderly and vulnerable with telecare alarms) surveyed a representative sample of more than 2,000 UK adults in March 2021, they found that 91% were unaware that all phone lines would become digital by the end of 2025. Your landline provider will get in touch with you when it's close to the time for you to choose if you want to continue with a landline or not.
Short and curlies of it is: if you don't use a landline you've no need to be concerned, if you do then you may need an adaptor to plug it directly into your router or a new phone especially as some DECT phones might no longer work (DECT = Digital European cordless telecommunications)
one downside is once we've all moved to the new digital system, although your landline will mainly work as it always has, although there'll be some differences – for example, it won't work if there's a power cut unless you have a battery backup. It is said in the community that nearly all of us have mobiles of some sort and question "Is it the end of the line for landline phones?" even the familiar phone box in the street is under review as expensive and outdated as you can't plug one of them into a router! 40% of us have stopped using a landline phone altogether, 4 million ditched the landline in 2021 and while 95% of over-65-year-olds still cling to a traditional landline phone, most don't even use it, nearly half of under-25s don't even have a landline installed at all.
Dinosaurs eventually die out!
