The UK’s telephone network is changing

Landlines are changing. Copper wires and analogue signals have served our nation for over a century. They’ve kept hospitals, schools and emergency services connected, they’ve powered card machines on our high streets and delivered some of most important phone conversations we’ve ever had with our family and friends.

But, because it's been around for a long time, it’s no longer as efficient as it could be. Replacement parts are hard to come by and, it fails more often than we’d like, meaning it doesn’t provide the world-class service that we need it to. This is why we'll be retiring the analogue phone network at the end of 2025.

By this point everyone in the UK will have been upgraded to a digital phone line, providing us with a greener, faster, and more reliable service. This means landline voice calls will soon be transmitted digitally - in the same way your broadband works. By modernising the telephone network, we’ll be able to do more than ever before, helping the UK to stay competitive on the global stage.

To enable this change, most people in the UK from big organisations, to small local businesses, data hungry families, to elderly relatives using their landline as a lifeline will need to answer the call and get ready for the Upgrade to Digital Phone Lines.

Fact Check - Digital phone lines | Openreach