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Openreach is retiring the UK's analogue phone network entirely. If your lift's emergency alarm still dials out over a PSTN or ISDN line, it will stop working — unless it's moved to GSM before the switch-off reaches you.
PSTN — the Public Switched Telephone Network — is the legacy system of analogue, circuit-switched phone lines dating back to the late 1800s. You might know it as a landline, POTS, or a fixed-line phone. Openreach, the infrastructure provider behind the UK's phone network, is retiring it completely, along with ISDN and WLR services built on top of it. BT stopped selling traditional phone lines back in September 2023 — the shutdown of every remaining line follows by 31 January 2027.
PSTN doesn't just carry voice calls. A lot of equipment quietly depends on that same analogue line to dial out — including several things you'd never think of as "a phone."
Under EN 81-28 (2003), every UK passenger lift installed since 1999 must have a working emergency alarm system — almost always an auto-dialler wired to a PSTN line. When that line goes, so does the alarm, unless it's been moved across in advance.
Moving now, ahead of the deadline, means it happens on your schedule rather than in a scramble once a line stops working. It also means your buildings stay demonstrably compliant with EN 81-28 without relying on infrastructure that's being switched off from underneath you.
Tell us a bit about your buildings and we'll take it from there — most applications take a few minutes.
Apply now