PSTN switch-off for transport and logistics: what you need to do before January 2027

The UK's old analogue phone network, the PSTN, is being switched off on 31 January 2027. While the switch-off is already underway, Openreach estimates around 1.5 million lines nationwide, including roughly 350,000 business premises, are still running on it. For transport and logistics operators, that figure matters more than it might first appear, since so much of the sector's day-to-day infrastructure quietly depends on the same old copper lines.

Here’s what the switch-off means for the transport and logistics sector, and how to plan your transition in time.

PSTN switch-off for transport & logistics organisations 

We’ve already covered what the PSTN switch-off means for housing, construction, healthcare, and retail organisations. Transport and logistics deserves the same close look, since it combines two things that make the switch-off particularly worth planning for properly: often unstaffed sites and operations that frequently run through the night.

If you want the fundamentals first, start with our guide to what the PSTN switch-off is and our insight piece PSTN switch-off: it's about more than just telephones. This insight picks up from there and applies it specifically to depots, control rooms and fleets.

What is the PSTN switch-off?

The PSTN is the copper-based network that’s carried UK phone calls for well over a century. Openreach is retiring the PSTN in favour of digital, IP-based alternatives such as SIP and VoIP. The date has moved before. Our piece comparing the 2025 and 2027 deadlines explains why. The current confirmed date is 31 January 2027, which, at the time of writing, gives most organisations just over five months to be ready.

Why this is a critical change for transport & logistics

Transport and logistics operations tend to run more analogue lines than people expect, often without anyone having a full list of where they all are. Common examples include:

• Depot and warehouse alarm, lift, and door entry systems, frequently installed years ago and left untouched since.
• Barrier and gate access systems at yards and loading bays, which often rely on a simple analogue line to function.
• PDQ and card payment machines at depots, weighbridges, and driver welfare facilities.
• Cold-chain and telemetry monitoring lines, used to flag temperature or equipment faults out of hours.
• Fax-based proof-of-delivery and order systems, still in active use at some sites despite digital alternatives being available.
• Out-of-hours and lone-worker alarm lines, relied on precisely when nobody else is around to notice a fault.

Individually, none of these feel urgent. Together, across a network of depots, they add up to a lot of infrastructure quietly running on a network that won’t exist in its current form much longer.

Why round-the-clock operations raise the stakes

A lot of transport and logistics activity happens overnight, from maintenance windows and off-peak deliveries to control room monitoring of a live network. That timing cuts both ways when it comes to the switch-off.

On the one hand, this means a communications failure is more likely to go unnoticed for longer, since fewer people are around to spot it. On the other, migration work needs planning around your operation, so it doesn’t collide with your busiest or most safety-critical hours.

This is exactly the challenge our Nationwide Logistics Network case study covers. The customer needed uninterrupted communications across a safety-critical, nationwide operational network. Any failure could have triggered route closures or prevented maintenance teams from safely accessing infrastructure, much of it at night. The solution combined a unified communications platform with a failsafe telephony service that includes backup during power outages, so critical systems stay reachable even when something else has already gone wrong.

How transport & logistics operators can prepare

• Map every site, not just head office. A single depot might have five or six analogue lines doing different jobs. Multiply that across a network, and the audit is the biggest single task, but also the one that removes the most risk once it's done.
• Identify which lines sit behind something safety-critical. Alarms, barriers, and lone-worker systems should be prioritised over lines that are simply legacy and unused.
• Plan migration around your quiet hours, not your provider's. A rollout schedule that respects your peak delivery windows and maintenance schedules will cause far less disruption than a generic one.
• Build in resilience, not just replacement. A straight swap from analogue to digital is only half the job if there's no backup for power or connectivity loss at a depot. Our disaster recovery services are built around exactly this kind of continuity planning.
• Think about what else could modernise at the same time. Many depots relying on analogue alarm lines are also good candidates for connectivity and IoT-based monitoring; our IoT connectivity solutions cover telemetry and asset tracking use cases that often sit right alongside the systems being replaced.

Why a trusted, experienced provider matters

A national depot network isn’t a single migration. It’s dozens of small ones, each with its own quirks that need to land in the right order without disrupting live operations. That’s a materially different job to switching over one office, so it’s worth choosing a provider like us who has done it at scale before.

Solutions to support your switch-off planning

• PSTN & ISDN switch-off hub for the full detail on the switch-off, our free telephony audit, and SIP and VoIP replacement options.
• Disaster recovery services for building resilience and failover into your replacement setup, not just swapping technology.
• IoT connectivity solutions for depot and fleet monitoring that can be modernised alongside your phone lines.
• SD-WAN solutions and SASE solutions for connecting a multi-depot network with consistent performance and security across sites.

You might also find our step-by-step PSTN switch-off planning tool and our work with a nationwide logistics network useful as you plan your next step.

Why you must act now before the PSTN switch-off

Waiting until the January 2027 deadline could leave critical communication and safety systems exposed. For transport and logistics operators, that can mean missed statutory response deadlines, greater operational risk and reputational damage with regulators and customers.

Migrating in time is important if you have drivers and lone workers relying on technology attached to analogue lines and ensuring compliance with Health and Safety at Work obligations and Operator's Licence conditions, and it will reduce the cost and disruption of a rushed switchover.

If you're not sure how many analogue lines your depot network is still running, or where they all are, start with an audit. . We can help you map what’s in place and plan what needs to happen next.

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