Openreach counted the copper lines left in ten cities. Bristol still has 43,775 to move.

Openreach published a league table on 17 September 2026 ranking ten of the UK's largest cities, and the areas around them, by how much of the old copper phone network is left to migrate. Liverpool is top with 6.35 per cent of its legacy lines still to convert. London is bottom on 12.92 per cent, which is 235,934 lines. Bristol, the nearest city in the table to most of the businesses we work with, sits at 8.99 per cent with 43,775 lines to go.

Across all ten cities Openreach says around 90 per cent of legacy lines have already moved, more than six million of them, leaving around 600,000. Nationally it estimates around 1.5 million lines are still running on the old copper phone network, including around 350,000 business premises.

The lines nobody remembers they have

James Lilley, Openreach's Director of All-IP, put the business problem plainly in the announcement: "Many organisations may have already upgraded their phone line but may not realise how many other services still rely on the old network, from payment terminals and lift alarms to security systems, door entry systems and building management technology. Once the PSTN is withdrawn, those services could stop working unless they've been upgraded or replaced."

The notes to editors on the same release list the kit Openreach expects to be caught: lift emergency telephone and auto dialler systems, fire alarm communication panels and diallers, building intercoms and door entry systems, electronic access control platforms, automated gate and barrier entry units, lone worker and emergency call points, cash handling and ATM monitoring, CCTV backhaul connections, industrial telemetry, and building energy management systems. Almost none of that sits with whoever manages your phone contract, which is why it gets missed.

Business lines do not get the safety net

ISPreview reported on the same day that consumers who miss the deadline will not face a hard disconnection, and will instead be moved onto a temporary Emergency Voice Access service. Business lines do not get that protection. A business line that has not migrated simply stops. ISPreview puts the switch off date at 31 January 2027, the same date Openreach gave in July when it warned that around 350,000 business premises were still to be migrated.

Waiting costs more and books up

Openreach's July notes to editors set out the price schedule for Wholesale Line Rental. The basic rental price rose by 20 per cent on 1 April 2026, by 40 per cent of the current price on 1 July 2026, and rises by a further 40 per cent on 1 October 2026, which takes it to double. Lilley made the capacity point as well: "The reality is that the final migrations are likely to be the most complex and business critical. The organisations that act now will have more time to identify hidden dependencies, test new solutions and make the transition smoothly."

The engineering side of that is easy enough to picture. Every organisation that leaves it until December is queueing for the same install slots, and the sites that need an engineer twice are the ones with a lift phone or an alarm panel on the end of the line.