The Landline Is Being Switched Off — Here's What Families Need to Know

If you or a family member still has a traditional landline, you may already have heard something is changing — an engineer mentioning it on a call-out, a letter from your provider, or simply finding you can no longer order a new line the way you used to. It's real, it has a date, and it's worth twenty minutes to actually understand rather than putting off.

The landline switch-off, in plain English

The UK's old copper phone network — the one landlines have run on for over a century — is being retired. Openreach and BT have confirmed the copper network will be fully switched off by 31 January 2027. After that date, calls can no longer travel over a traditional copper line at all.

Two things worth knowing:

• This date has already slipped once. The original plan was December 2025. Ofcom pushed back the timeline specifically because of concerns about vulnerable customers — particularly people who rely on telecare pendants and personal alarms that work over an analogue line and don't automatically work once it's gone. That's not a minor detail: if anyone in your family has a "help button" alarm, this is the single most important thing to check before anything else changes.
• In most of the UK, you can no longer order a new copper landline at all. Openreach calls this "stop-sell" — existing copper lines mostly keep working until they're migrated, but new orders are already being pushed onto digital alternatives.

None of this means you need to panic or act today. But it does mean "leave it and see" isn't really an option anymore — every household with a traditional landline is going to end up on something else, on a timeline that isn't really optional.

The three real options

Once a landline moves off copper, there are genuinely three different answers, and which one is right depends entirely on the situation:

1. Keep the physical phone, add an adapter. A small box plugs into your home broadband and your existing corded (or cordless) handset keeps working exactly as before — same phone, same number if you transfer it across, same feel for someone who doesn't want anything about their day-to-day phone to change. The trade-off: it depends on your home broadband staying up, and it only works from that one address — no good if the calls need to reach someone away from home, or if there's no reliable home broadband to plug it into.

2. A "virtual" landline number that forwards to a mobile. A cloud-hosted UK number rings and simply forwards the call to a mobile number behind the scenes. Quick to set up, and there's a genuine market of these aimed mostly at small businesses wanting a professional-looking number. The trade-off: it's a forwarding step, not a number that actually lives on the phone — texts to it, voicemail, and "who's actually calling" can get a bit more fiddly depending on the provider.

3. A number that lives directly on a mobile SIM. This is IQ Home's approach: a real UK geographic number, provisioned onto a mobile SIM rather than forwarded to one. No home broadband dependency, no adapter box, and it works anywhere there's mobile signal — at the shops, at the doctors, or away on holiday — because the number isn't tied to an address at all.

None of these is universally "best" — a household that's happy with their existing corded phone and has solid broadband may be perfectly served by option one. IQ Home is built for the households where that doesn't quite fit: no landline in the house any more, or a number that needs to actually follow someone rather than stay parked at one address.

Who this suits

• A family wanting an elderly relative to keep "a proper landline number" without needing broadband at home to be reliable, or the phone to stay by the wall — the number simply moves with them.
• Someone who's already mobile-only and would rather hand out a landline-style number than their personal mobile number.
• Anyone moving house who wants a settled local number from day one, without waiting on a landline install.

What IQ Home includes

• A real UK geographic number — you choose the area (01225, 0117, 020, wherever suits)
• Calls that find you anywhere, including abroad
• Voicemail, the usual options
• A mobile number for texts, included alongside

£10/month, no contract. It's a brand new number, not your existing landline moved across — if you'd rather keep the number you already have, that's a separate, more involved process (get in touch and we'll talk through where that stands).

IQ Home+ — when a family wants more than just the number

Family members monitoring an elderly relative's calls for scam risk is already a well-established need — call-blocking devices, whitelisted numbers, and similar tools exist precisely because cold callers and scam calls disproportionately target older people on landlines. IQ Home+ (£15/month) builds the same idea directly into the number itself:

• Call transcripts — a written record of what was said, so nothing has to be remembered or replayed
• Scam-call flagging — calls that look like a scam are flagged, so a family member can spot a problem early
• Simple to-do reminders picked out from calls — a date, a callback, a form to send

The scenario this is built for: a parent gets a call from someone claiming to be their bank. A grown-up child can look back at what was actually said and step in early, rather than finding out something was wrong after money has already gone. These extras are new and rolling out gradually — register your interest and we'll be in touch as they become available.

Why "simple" is the whole point

A lot of what makes this kind of change stressful isn't the technology, it's the process — forms, engineer visits, waiting on hold. Getting a new IQ Home number today takes minutes: pick your area, we set it up, it starts ringing on your mobile. No jargon, no paperwork, no one standing by for an engineer. That's deliberate, and it's the same standard we're holding ourselves to as we build out the option to move an existing number across too — automated and straightforward, not a stack of forms.

👉 See IQ Home and get started →

Frequently asked questions

When exactly is the landline switch-off happening? Openreach and BT have confirmed the UK's copper phone network will be fully retired by 31 January 2027. In most areas, new copper-based lines can no longer be ordered at all — existing lines are being migrated in stages ahead of the final date.

I have a personal alarm or telecare pendant — does this affect me? Yes, potentially — this was specifically why the switch-off date was pushed back from its original December 2025 target. Analogue telecare devices don't always work once a line moves to digital, so check with your alarm provider before anything about your landline changes, whichever option you go with.

Does IQ Home replace my existing landline number? Not today — IQ Home gives you a brand new UK landline-style number, not your existing one moved across. If you'd rather keep the number you already have, register your interest and we'll be in touch when that's ready.

What's the difference between IQ Home and a VoIP adapter that keeps my existing phone? A VoIP adapter keeps your existing corded phone working at home, over your broadband — good if you want nothing about the physical phone to change. IQ Home puts the number on a mobile SIM instead, so it works anywhere, not just at home, and doesn't depend on your broadband staying up.

Do I need a new phone for IQ Home? No — it works on a mobile phone you already have.

Is there a contract? No — both IQ Home and IQ Home+ are a straightforward monthly price with no minimum term.