What will happen to businesses when landlines go digital?

16/07/25 Wavenet
What will happen to businesses when landlines go digital? placeholder thumbnail

Preparing your business for the WLR switch-off and ensuring a smooth transition 

Most businesses currently rely on traditional analogue lines, ISDN, or broadband connected through Wholesale Line Rental (WLR) – the infrastructure powering your calls, data, security systems, and more. But the truth is, the WLR switch-off is on the horizon – and it’s affecting businesses in ways they might not be expecting. It’s not just about telephony! Do you really know what your WLR lines are powering? And what your options are?  

The countdown is on - Openreach’s deadline to shut down traditional analogue phone lines, ISDN, broadband, and other vital WLR-connected services is January 2027 (or even sooner). If you’re not fully prepared, your business could face serious disruption:  

  • Your phones may stop ringing, cutting off essential customer contact 
  • Lifts and critical facilities could cease functioning 
  • Broadband and internet services might go offline unexpectedly 
  • Your customers’ access to your services could be lost 

What exactly are your WLR lines powering?  

Many businesses don’t realise just how much relies on their existing WLR lines and traditional networks. The PSTN and WLR include more than just voice calls; they power card payment terminals, security alarms, lift controls, entry systems, CCTV, emergency systems, and many other critical business operations.  

Without a clear understanding of which lines are used for what, you risk missing vital services during the switch-over. Managing large estates or multiple sites makes this even trickier – you may be unaware of what lines you have, what they’re used for, where they’re located, or what they are connected to, creating a significant business risk.  

What do you do when landlines go digital? 

Don’t wait until disruption strikes. The earlier you identify your current setup and plan your migration, the smoother and more secure your transition will be. 

Download our free WLR Audit Factsheet – a straightforward guide to show you how we can help.  

Stay ahead of the clock. Take control now to ensure your business’s ongoing communications and critical services remain unaffected.  

Visit wavenet.co.uk/pstn-switch-off  for more information.  

 

Download the WLR Audit Factsheet here

Unified Communications & Voice, Blogs, Switch-off, WLR

Latest blogs

See all posts
Placeholder thumbnail
Cloud, Data & Apps – meeting you in your digital journey

For years, the cloud was seen as the answer to digital transformation. It promised scale and simplicity but often led to complexity and unclear results. The truth? Cloud doesn’t create value, outcomes do. That’s why we’ve launched our new Cloud, Data & Apps strategy. Instead of tech-first conversations, this approach focuses on outcome-led transformation, ensuring every step ties directly to customer goals. We’ve worked with our customers to map the stages of their digital evolution and adopt an outcome-led approach that ensures we have the right conversations with our customers and deliver the right services and support, at the right time. It means we can be specific and deliberate about our advice and our execution. Here’s how it works… 1. STARTING OUT “We’re thinking about change” OUR SOLUTION ▼ How we help customers starting out: We can identify the value for you We bring in subject matter experts, allowing you to focus on your core business We will find the tech way to solve the problem and be your expert advisors ADVISORY SERVICE Assessment solutions: Technology assessment Vision, modernisation & migration readiness assessment Data discovery & strategy assessment 2. PLANNING “We know what we're going to do, we just need to do it” OUR SOLUTION ▼ How we help customers with a plan: We will work with you to help write the business case We bring experience of doing this for thousands of customers, you don't need to do it alone. Instead, you will be partnering with an expert ADVISORY SERVICE Workshop solutions: Modern infrastructure design Data profiling Data platform design AI/ML use-case identification & design 3. MOBILISING “Let's go...” OUR SOLUTION ▼ How we help customers to mobilise: If you can't do it on your own, we will support you or do it for you (any tech stack etc.) We can deliver meaningful change with our highly customisable, commercially flexible delivery method - OnDemand PROFESSIONAL SERVICES, MANAGED SERVICES AND ONDEMAND OnDemand Change Squad Landing zone & cloud fundamentals Infractructure build Pipeline automation Data platform deployments AI/ML deployment & pipelining 4. OPERATING “Its in, does it work as we said it would?” OUR SOLUTION ▼ How we help customers to operate: Focus on your business, let us run it for you, or partner with you to run it together We can provide end-to-end management, either through a structured Managed Service or with the flexibility of our tailored OnDemand offering PROFESSIONAL SERVICES, MANAGED SERVICES AND ONDEMAND OnDemand Run Squad Operational support SRE powered operational resilience Support to extend across full technology portfolio 5. OPTIMISING “Can we make it better?” OUR SOLUTION ▼ How we help customers optimise: Your agility is our reputation, let's optimise with your best interests at heart Optimisation opportunities can be activated quickly and easily, delivering rapid time-to-value through OnDemand PROFESSIONAL SERVICES, MANAGED SERVICES AND ONDEMAND OnDemand Quantum for Azure remediation (FinOps) Aligned to the Cyber Assessment Framework Infrastructure as Code optimisation

Read more

Stay service-savvy

Get all the latest news and insights straight to your inbox.