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Landline phones will switch off across Britland in 100 days, no extensions

Landline phones will switch off across Britland in 100 days, no extensions

edward

Comments (115)

  • jordanb
    An interesting component of the switching off of POTS is that the quality of service requirements are different. POTS is regulated to require the phone company to maintain a certain legal quality of service with negative consequences for failing to do so.Meanwhile, cell phone and VOIP services are "best effort."The phone company put a pretty huge amount of effort into maintaining QoS (Lily Tomlin jokes aside) because there were consequences for not doing so. It makes sense that they would prefer to shed that responsibility.
  • gumby
    The biggest problems is power. The phone company power the POTS line — you can even make an emergency call from an abandoned building with no electrical service (and no phone subscription) if you find a jack and plug in. Under those huge central office buildings are huge banks of -48 V batteries which are required to provide a week of power (or was it two in the US? I can’t remember).Now you’ll have a router with a battery that the owner doesn’t know about and won’t service, so that within a year or so it won’t work. In an emergency: no phone service.
  • userbinator
    Replacing simple dedicated circuits with "best effort" highly complex packet-switched networks? I bet it's a great money-maker for those involved in the work, but a huge step backwards for reliability.The move is part of a wider government scheme to get the UK onto all-digital high-speed networks running on fiber-optic infrastructure, and the legacy phone service – with its dependency on copper cabling – was standing in the way.Not surprising that the government is involved; using new technology for new installations is acceptable, but cutting off existing paying customers with service that may have been working just fine for many decades is hostile.I'm not in the UK, but my house has had a working landline since I bought it many decades ago, and I don't expect that to change anytime soon.
  • SillyUsername
    Somebody please remind the ISPs that they are now an essential service.Around 2am to 4am about twice a month my phone line and internet are down for randomly timed maintenance.This is the peak time for people to die in their sleep https://deathspersecond.com/blog/how-many-people-die-in-thei...
  • zh3
    Somewhat rural here (well 1/4 mile from an A road). We were supposed to be switched to digital several times, been sent a pile of hubs and extender devices and have had several letters about the switchover date. Latest one was we are apparently "switched over" a month ago, except that it actually turns out to be SOTAP [1] and everything works exactly as before (including CLI, using the old 300 baud standard). I assume they couldn't get digital to us so they've installed kit at the exchange just so we are "switched over".Fairly obviously, the SOTAP kit continues to provide power from the local exchange so even in the (relatively common) power cuts here the phones continue to work (we're not on any kind of priority register or anything like that, I assume it's just BT are dealing with peopole living out in the sticks).N.B. we also have a 2nd line, on a business account (WFH) - that one is full digital, 70mbps VDSL and has cisco/yealink ATAs for phone service. So two lines, a home line that's SOTAP and a work line that's broadband/digital voice.[1] https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2025/09/openreach-laun...
  • decryption
    Australia hasn't had a POTS for a while now, since the National Broadband Network was "complete". They literally ripped the copper out of the ground and sold it for scrap, they even made specialised machines to make the task easier: https://www.rg.com.au/2022/09/29/telstra-mirait-take-deliver...Hasn't really been much of an issue day-to-day. My mother for example still uses her landline phone on the same phone number she's had for decades via VOIP that the ISP operates. The vast majority of people use mobile phones as their primary voice service and it all seems to work just fine. But there has been a few notable outages (e.g: Telstra and their NTP mess, Optus and their emergency-call routing issues), and of course there's fringe issues with coverage gaps, but overall I'd say the mobile voice network is as reliable as the old POTS was (which was far from perfect).
  • throwitaway222
    That's not part of the phone system I want cut off. I want the part that allows international calls that come from the same few buildings in a small space that are responsible for half a trillion per year scams.
  • Y_Y
    > Anyone with concerns should contact their provider, but the responsibility cannot rest with customers alone.Best of luck contacting your provider
  • lambdaone
    There are a couple of quirky services that have been introduced as part of this. One is SOGEA (Single Order Generic Ethernet Access), effectively FTTC internet access without the baseband POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) facility, so that you still connect via copper but now need a router at home to connect your POTS phone.[0] There is also SOTAP, which is the same but for ADSL.The other is the even weirder SOTAP for Analogue[1], where they put what is effectively a router at the exchange for you; so it delivers old-fashioned POTS without the capability to have any digital service on the line. Like a mini-DSLAM without data.[0] https://www.openreach.com/content/dam/openreach/openreach-da... [1] https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2025/09/openreach-laun...
  • lelandfe
  • tejtm
    Britland is apparently an informal term for England/Britain.So all of it.oh it is el Reg, cheeky bastards
  • tim333
    In my flat in central London (W1) I've only got the old school copper wire into the flat. I've been hoping they'll install something else as the broadband over it is quite bad. Fingers crossed it doesn't all go wrong in Jan.(update - googling seems they just turn off the phone service but keep the data on the same copper wires)
  • mhh__
    I do worry about communications in disasters and so on but I think the plan was always to cut the phone lines in that case anyway
  • jagged-chisel
    > … public awareness seems low that analog phone services will soon be disconnected.What’s the level of public awareness that they’re even using the landline service? My 98yo grandmother has had the “same” phone service (with the same phone number) for decades. She’s completely unaware of the infrastructure it runs on.I happen to know that her area was converted to all fiber digital years ago, but she wouldn’t know that. Her children (my parents’ generation) are also clueless about the infrastructure itself.So how many people know they’ll be affected even if they have been informed of the change?
  • stephbook
    > need to coordinate a much more cohesive campaign that reaches customers directlyI think this is the crux. You should definitely mail everyone affected.Send a letter 2 years before. 1 year before. 1 month before. Do a scream test at termination date (switch off for a day and see who pipes up), keep operating for two weeks and that's it.Some people will never switch as long as "it works", but that's not your problem. Some letters, a website that the young generation can easily share (a daughter visits and a son takes care of IT, not uncommon.)
  • implements
    [Tip] If you decide to cut the cord but want to keep your number you can port it to Andrews & Arnold (a small ISP, based in Bracknell) as a £1.80 per month VOIP subscription.
  • kevTheDev
    Where is Britland?
  • elAhmo
    I had to google what is Britland. First time in my life seeing this term used.
  • nijave
    Apparently controversial but POTS should die. Cell is reliable, has better voice quality, and is cheaper.As an added bonus, it also works when you're not at home.I think I can count on one hand the times cell service has been down for me in the last 20 years.
  • xacky
    It's still using the same cables if you're not using fttp. Just that the phone is connected through the router first.
  • wolfi1
    most landlines in continental Europe are already VoIP
  • jauntywundrkind
    Lots of change in a short time.Long-wave and Radio Teleswitch just shut down in the spring. After medium wave shut downs in 2024. Different topic but lots of communication changes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_teleswitch
  • mmooss
    > The company previously told The Register that customers without a fiber connection will likely be switched to SOTAP for Analog (Single Order Transitional Access Product), where equipment is installed in the local telephone exchange to allow them to continue to use their old phone line as before.What does Single Order refer to? One purchase order at a time?
  • mistrial9
    Internet services are the new walled city? -- be cast out at your own peril; suits the State just fine
  • betamagel
    [dead]