BT is ending its landline phone network by December 2025, with other providers following similar timescales. Between now and then, telephone providers will move their customers over to a new digital system, while customers will likely not be able to order new non-digital landline services in the near future.

Once the switch has happened, landline calls will be delivered over digital technology, called Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), or sometimes referred to as ‘digital phone’ or ‘digital voice’. In effect, future voice telephone calls will be carried in the same way as data over a broadband connection.

Businesses will be affected

Businesses, like residential customers, will eventually have to move to a digital, VOIP service to make phone calls.

Crucially, businesses may also have equipment such as card payment machines, alarms, and monitoring equipment connected to their landline that might not work once they have switched to a VoIP service.

Businesses are advised to contact their phone network provider to check what, if anything, they need to do.

Find local companies who can help

Search the Buckinghamshire Business Directory for providers of digital phone-related services.

Search by keyword - such as digital, phone, VOIP, landline, hosted - and filter by sector, such as 'information technology'.

More information

Read updates and explanations from Ofcom and Which? on the move from analogue to digital phone networks.

The Future of Voice website sets out information on the move to VoIP services for residential and business customers.

Openreach has published factsheets for businesses who use phone lines to deliver services to help them understand how the move to VoIP services will affect them.