Copper line prices rose again on 1 July. Staying put now has a real cost.
Openreach's wholesale copper line rental goes up another 40% today, after 20% in April, with a further 40% due in October. Doing nothing has become the expensive option.
Openreach put the wholesale price of its old copper phone lines up again on 1 July, by another 40%. This isn't a one-off. It is part of a deliberate schedule of rises through 2026 designed to make sitting on the old network cost more than moving off it, ahead of the phone switch-off on 31 January 2027. If your phones or broadband still run over an old line, this is the point where the do-nothing option starts to hurt.
The price schedule
The basic wholesale line rental started the year at £10.65 plus VAT. It rose 20% on 1 April, another 40% today on 1 July, and a further 40% is due on 1 October. By the autumn that takes the rate to roughly double where it began the year. These are the prices Openreach charges the providers who sell you the line, and they feed through into business bills at renewal or sooner.
Why Openreach is doing it
It is a carrot and a stick. The rising price is the stick, pushing providers to move customers onto digital services before the old network closes. The carrot is discounted or free connections for providers who migrate lines across to full fibre or a digital broadband service. With millions of lines still to move before the network closes, the pressure to migrate only builds from here.
What it means for your business
If your phone system still runs over a copper line, your line rental is climbing toward double, for a service with a fixed end date and no future. Moving to a cloud phone system over your internet connection usually lands at a lower, more predictable monthly cost, and you keep your existing numbers. It is also the moment to check anything else quietly sharing that line: alarms, lifts, door entry and card machines all need a plan before the copper goes.
What this means for your business
Waiting used to be the cheap option. After today it isn't. If you're still on an old copper line, the calm way through is to move now, on your terms, rather than in a 2027 rush. We'll check what you're running, tell you plainly what moves easily and what needs more thought, keep your numbers and switch you across with no gap in your phones.
#WEARECOBALT
Ready when you are.
Tell us what's slowing your business down. We'll tell you exactly how we'd fix it — plainly, with no obligation.