Openreach tests 2027 phone switch-off plan for the UK
Key Points
- Openreach will pilot Emergency Voice Access (EVAc) in Salisbury and Mildenhall from 3 August 2026, ahead of the UK's 31 January 2027 PSTN switch-off.
- The pilot tests how WLR3 single-lines move onto a voice-only fallback product when communications providers fail to migrate customers in time.
- Openreach will cut broadband over migrated lines, with exemptions only for Critical National Infrastructure and vulnerable customer flags.
- Lines on EVAc lose Carrier Pre-Select, Indirect Access billing, and a range of calling and network features at unchanged WLR3 pricing.
- Around 2.5 million UK lines, including more than 500,000 business lines, still sit on the legacy WLR network ahead of the deadline.
Openreach will start an Emergency Voice Access pilot in Salisbury and Mildenhall in August, testing the UK’s 2027 phone switch-off plan.
Openreach, the BT Group network arm, will use the two exchanges to test how single-line Wholesale Line Rental (WLR) services move onto WLR Emergency Voice Access (EVAc), a stripped-back voice-only fallback product, ahead of the 31 January 2027 retirement of the Public Switched Telephone Network.
Around 2.5 million UK lines still sit on the legacy WLR network, including more than 500,000 business lines, and current migration averages roughly 44,000 lines per week.
Salisbury and Mildenhall served the same role for the original 2020 and 2021 WLR stop-sell trials.
What the pilot covers
The pilot runs across all communications providers with eligible WLR3 single-lines, with or without broadband, in the Salisbury and Mildenhall exchange areas.
Openreach will end the existing WLR (PSTN) contract on affected lines and apply the new WLR (EVAc) contract to any line that remains.
Lines that stay on EVAc keep WLR3 pricing but get a less feature-rich service, with fewer calling and network features and no support for Carrier Pre-Select or Indirect Access call billing.
Openreach will strip broadband from lines before moving them to EVAc, including FTTC, SMPF, and SLU services, even where a different provider supplies the broadband over a WLR line owned by another communications provider.
The carve-out applies only where the WLR provider has flagged the line as Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) or as supporting a vulnerable customer.
Customers in the two areas who rely on telecare alarms, lifts, fire alarms, or any other equipment that uses the line for data signalling stand to lose service unless their provider migrates them onto a fully digital alternative first.
Wholesale prices on the legacy WLR network rose 20% in April 2026, will rise a further 40% in July 2026, and another 40% in October 2026, roughly doubling the annual rental cost by autumn.
Openreach has positioned the increases as a final push to move communications providers and their customers off the network before the 31 January 2027 deadline.
Around 1.8 million people in the UK rely on home telecare devices that run on the old PSTN, the group at the centre of the original delay from December 2025 to January 2027.
