What is the PSTN switch off?

The UK’s ISDN and PSTN network will switch off in 2025 and traditional landlines are heading to the cloud.

Whilst 2025 has been marked as the end of the analogue switch off, that doesn’t mean your service won’t be retired sooner.

Openreach are actively working through putting the exchanges of ISDN and PSTN into a phase known as Stop Sell, where you can no longer make any changes or upgrades to the existing service you have.

Essentially, once your service is put into this ‘Stop Sell’ phase, it becomes static. Openreach will move all analogue exchanges into this phase during 2023.

The next phase is to then move the exchange to End of Life, at which point your service, will cease to work. By 2025, all exchanges will be moved into their End of Life and anyone still operating on these networks will find their phone line or broadband service cut off.

The ISDN and PSTN have been the UK’s primary communication networks for decades.

Once revolutionary, these ageing infrastructures are now severely out of date, relying on degrading copper telephone lines which can no longer compete with more advanced cloud solutions.

To embrace a fully digital future, Openreach have announced the Switch Off.

As part of the Switch Off, any phone lines, broadband and fax, alarm and lift lines connected to the End of Life networks will be retired.