The short answer
The copper network is due to close by 31 January 2027. Your phone will then work through your broadband, so it needs a decent connection and a battery for power cuts. Check every alarm, dialler, intercom and card machine that uses the line before your provider moves you, not after.
What's actually changing
For a hundred years, landlines have run on copper wires powered from the telephone exchange. That's why the phone kept working in a power cut. The network is old, expensive to keep going, and is being switched off.
Instead, calls go over your broadband, a service BT calls Digital Voice and other providers call digital landline or VoIP. Your number stays the same. Your phone usually plugs into the router instead of the wall socket.
Providers are moving customers in stages, and must give you at least four weeks' notice before they move your line. The national deadline is the end of January 2027.
Why a farm is different
- Power cuts take the phone with them. The new service runs off the router, which runs off the mains. No power, no phone, unless there's a battery.
- Mobile is no fallback. The NFU's own survey found only around one in five members had reliable outdoor mobile signal across the whole farm.
- More things use the line than you think. Burglar alarms, telecare pendants, gate and door intercoms, auto-diallers on parlour or dryer alarms, older card machines, and the odd fax.
- The broadband may not be up to it. A call needs very little speed, but it needs it reliably. A line that drops when it rains will drop your calls too.
What to do before January
List everything that uses the phone line.
Walk round with this list: phones, alarm panels, telecare, intercoms, diallers, card machines, fax. Anything with a cable to a phone socket counts.
Ask each supplier whether it works on a digital line.
Alarm companies especially. Some older panels won't talk over the new service, and some fail quietly, which is worse. Monitored alarms usually need moving to a 4G or broadband signalling unit by the alarm company.
Sort out power cuts.
A battery that keeps the router and phone going for a few hours. If you depend on your landline and have no mobile signal, Ofcom expects your provider to offer you a free battery solution; ask for it. A bigger one is worth having on a farm.
Add a backup for the broadband.
A 4G router that takes over automatically when the line drops keeps the phone, the cameras and the card machine going.
Test it when the switch happens.
Ring out, ring in, set the alarm off on purpose, and pull the plug to check the battery. Then you know.
Questions people ask
Will my phone number change?
No. Your number moves to the new service.
Can I keep my old phones?
Usually. Most plug into the router or a small adapter. Some very old ones, and some with special features, may not work, which is worth testing.
I don't have broadband. What happens?
Providers have offered a basic digital landline for people without broadband. Ask yours what it offers, and check the mobile signal in the house before you rely on it.
Does this cost anything?
The switch itself shouldn't. Battery backup, alarm upgrades and a 4G backup may, depending on what you have. Daniel's landline check lists exactly what needs doing, with prices, before anything is spent.
Checked October 2026.