PSTN Switch Off for Schools: What to Do Before January 2027

What is actually being switched off?

PSTN stands for the Public Switched Telephone Network.

It is the traditional network that has provided fixed telephone services over copper infrastructure for decades. ISDN — Integrated Services Digital Network — has also been widely used by organisations for voice and other communications services.

The network is ageing and increasingly difficult to maintain. Ofcom describes the PSTN as being beyond its intended lifespan, while Openreach has set 31 January 2027 as the date for retirement of its traditional phone network.

The future is digital.

For voice services, that generally means moving away from traditional PSTN or ISDN lines towards IP-based communications such as Voice over Internet Protocol.

For other devices and services, however, the answer may be different.

That distinction is particularly important in education.

An old telephone may have a straightforward replacement path. A fire alarm dialler, lift emergency line, building-management device or specialist accessibility system may require investigation with the relevant equipment supplier before anyone disconnects the existing service.

This is why the right first step is not simply to order a new phone system.

It is to understand the estate.

Why is the PSTN switch-off more complicated for schools?

Schools are unusual technology environments.

Infrastructure is often added gradually over many years. Different buildings may have been extended at different times. Telephone systems, alarms, door-entry controls, lifts and broadband connections may have been supplied by different companies under different contracts.

A school may also have infrastructure that very few current staff members remember being installed.

That creates an obvious challenge.

The IT team may understand the school’s network and telephone system but have little involvement with the lift-maintenance contract.

The estates manager may know how the fire alarm is maintained but not whether one of its communications modules still uses a telephone line.

The finance team may see recurring line-rental charges without knowing exactly what service each line supports.

A SENCO may know that a particular accessibility device is essential to a pupil or member of staff, while nobody else realises that the device depends on legacy connectivity.

This is why the DfE guidance is aimed not only at IT departments. It specifically identifies estates and property managers, facilities and IT teams, headteachers, SENCOs and governors as people who may need to be involved.

The PSTN switch-off therefore becomes an estate-wide coordination exercise, not simply an IT task.

It is not just your school’s telephone system

This is perhaps the most important point in the whole article.

When people hear “PSTN switch-off”, the natural assumption is that it affects telephones.

It certainly does.

But the Department for Education identifies a much broader range of services that may still rely on PSTN, ISDN or copper broadband.

These include fire and intruder alarms, lift emergency lines, CCTV, door-entry systems, payment terminals, tills, fax machines, vending machines, printers, specialist refrigeration and medical equipment, SEND accessibility equipment, electric-vehicle charging points, car-park barriers, environmental monitoring, utility meters and building-management systems.

That does not mean every one of these devices in every school is affected.

Modern equipment may already use IP connectivity, mobile networks or other digital services.

The issue is that schools should know, rather than assume.

A telephone system that was upgraded recently may be completely ready for the switch-off.

A rarely noticed device in an old plant room may not be.

And if that device performs a safety, security or accessibility function, discovering the dependency after an old line has been withdrawn is clearly not the ideal moment to investigate it.

How can a school find out what is still using PSTN or ISDN?

The Department for Education’s recommendation is straightforward: audit the estate.

For education sites in England, the guidance says the audit should cover all buildings and outbuildings and identify copper-connected services, where they are located, what they do, how they connect, who supplies or manages them and whether the service is still needed.

That may sound simple, but older estates can take time to investigate properly.

Start with what is already documented.

Telecoms invoices can reveal lines that are still being billed.

Maintenance agreements may identify equipment with communications dependencies.

Historical correspondence may contain migration notices that were originally sent to another employee or department.

Then look physically at the estate.

The DfE guidance even recommends identifying live and unused telephone sockets and checking what is connected to them.

For a small primary school, this may be relatively straightforward.

For a secondary school, college campus or multi-academy trust, the exercise can become much more substantial.

The important thing is to create a reliable picture of what exists before making decisions about what should replace it.

Why should estates, IT and finance work together?

• Legacy communications often cross departmental boundaries.
• IT may be paying for the main telephone platform.
• Facilities may hold the alarm contracts.
• Finance may be paying individual telecommunications invoices.
• A lift company may maintain its own emergency connection.
• Another contractor may support door-entry or CCTV equipment.
• If every department assumes somebody else has checked those connections, gaps can remain.
• That is why a coordinated audit is valuable.
• Finance can help identify recurring charges and old contracts.
• Facilities can identify services associated with buildings, safety and access.
• IT can assess network readiness and digital replacement options.
• Senior leadership can help prioritise critical services and approve changes.
• The objective is to build one view of the estate rather than several incomplete ones.

For a multi-academy trust, this becomes even more important because the same type of service may be configured differently at different schools.

Do schools need to replace every analogue line?

Not necessarily.

One of the most useful outcomes of an audit may be finding lines that are no longer required.

The DfE explicitly recommends cancelling services that are no longer needed and contacting providers to transition the services that remain necessary.

A line installed years ago may have supported equipment that has since been replaced.

Another may be duplicated by a newer service.

A fax line may still appear on an invoice even though the fax machine disappeared several years ago.

Simply recreating every existing line digitally can therefore reproduce old costs and unnecessary complexity.

The better question is:

What function does this connection perform today, and does the school still require it?

If the answer is no, the service may be removed.

If the answer is yes, the school can determine the appropriate digital replacement.

If nobody knows the answer, that is something to establish before January.

What replaces the school’s traditional phone system?

Where PSTN or ISDN is being used for normal voice calls, the most common replacement is a digital phone system based on Voice over Internet Protocol.

VoIP carries voice communications using IP networks rather than the traditional analogue telephone network.

For schools that want a deeper explanation of how the technology works and how it can support education environments, our VoIP for schools guidance covers the subject separately.

That separation is deliberate.

This article is not intended to turn every PSTN issue into a telephone-system discussion.

Voice is only one part of the migration.

A modern communications platform can provide flexibility, centralised administration, support for multiple sites and features that traditional systems could not easily provide, but the right solution still depends on the school’s users, numbers, call flows, resilience requirements, network and wider estate.

The DfE advises schools to consider how many handsets they require, which features they need and whether the chosen service is compatible with the infrastructure already in place.

Can a school keep its existing telephone numbers?

Number continuity is understandably important for schools.

Main reception numbers may appear on websites, letterheads, safeguarding documents, admissions material, emergency contacts and communications sent to parents.

Some schools also have direct-dial numbers for departments or individual staff.

Moving to a new communications service does not automatically mean abandoning those numbers, but number migration should be investigated early rather than treated as something to sort out on installation day.

The existing provider, proposed replacement provider, number ranges and current services all need to be understood.

That is particularly important if there are multiple sites or a large block of numbers.

The practical lesson is simple: identify important telephone numbers as part of the audit and make number continuity part of the migration plan.

Do not discover how important an old number is after the old service has already been cancelled.

What about alarms, lift phones and other connected equipment?

This is where the project becomes more complicated than simply replacing a telephone system.

Some equipment historically used analogue telephone lines to dial monitoring centres, report faults or provide emergency communications.

The Department for Education specifically highlights fire and intruder alarms, lift emergency lines, CCTV and door-entry systems as examples that may be affected.

Schools should speak to the supplier or maintenance company responsible for the equipment.

The important question is not simply:

“Does it have a telephone cable?”

It is:

“Is this equipment approved and supported for operation after the analogue line is removed?”

The answer may involve an IP connection, mobile connectivity, replacement communications hardware or an upgrade to the underlying device.

That decision should come from a proper understanding of the equipment rather than an assumption that any digital adapter will make an analogue system work indefinitely.

Can we just use an analogue telephone adapter?

Not for everything.

An analogue terminal adapter, often shortened to ATA, can allow some traditional telephone equipment to connect through newer digital infrastructure.

But the DfE makes an important distinction: ATA ports are intended for voice calls and are not suitable for alarms or other machine-to-machine services.

That is a significant point for education estates.

It means an adapter should not be treated as a universal answer to every analogue dependency discovered during an audit.

A device used for monitoring, alarm signalling or another automated function should be checked with the appropriate supplier.

If there is one message schools should take from this section, it is:

Do not assume that because something can physically be plugged into a socket, it is technically suitable or supported.

What happens during a power cut?

Traditional copper telephone services had one characteristic that many people rarely needed to think about: the line itself could carry electrical power.

Digital communications work differently.

Routers, network equipment and many IP telephone devices depend on mains electricity.

The Department for Education therefore tells schools moving to fibre-based services to consider what will happen during a power outage. Without battery backup or an uninterruptible power supply, voice and internet services can be lost.

That does not mean every school needs the same resilience design.

It means resilience needs to be considered intentionally.

What communications must continue during a power failure?

How long should they remain available?

Does the site have reliable mobile coverage?

Which network switches, routers or telephone devices require backup power?

Are critical emergency or safeguarding processes dependent on systems that would disappear when mains power is lost?

These are design questions, not reasons to avoid digital communications.

The advantage of asking them before migration is that the required resilience can be built into the project instead of being discovered during the first power interruption.

Do SEND and accessibility systems need checking?

Yes.

The DfE specifically identifies technologies used to support pupils with special educational needs and disabilities as an area that may require investigation, including landline-based accessibility equipment such as amplifiers.

This deserves particular care.

A device used by one pupil or member of staff may not appear on a conventional IT asset list.

It may be managed by a SENCO, facilities team or specialist external supplier rather than the IT department.

But if that equipment relies on an analogue service, its importance is not reduced simply because only a small number of people use it.

Including SENCOs and accessibility requirements in the audit helps prevent those less obvious dependencies being missed.

What about card machines, tills, franking machines and fax?

Administrative devices are another area where assumptions can be dangerous.

Payment terminals today commonly use internet or mobile connectivity, but older units may have been supplied differently.

The same applies to fax machines, franking machines, printers and other equipment.

The DfE lists these types of devices among the services schools should consider when checking their estate.

Again, the point is not that every card terminal or printer will stop working.

The point is that the connection method needs to be known.

If a device is already operating digitally, record that and move on.

If it still depends on an old line, speak to the supplier about the supported replacement.

If nobody knows, investigate it.

This methodical approach is far safer than waiting for individual services to fail and diagnosing them one at a time.

What about building-management and environmental systems?

Modern school estates often contain technology that has very little to do with classroom IT but still communicates externally.

This can include building-management systems, air-conditioning and air-handling equipment, environmental monitoring, electricity and gas meters and other infrastructure.

The DfE specifically includes these systems in its list of areas that may use legacy connectivity.

For estates teams, this is an important reminder that the PSTN project should not stop at reception, the server room or the telephone cabinet.

Plant rooms, meter cupboards and facilities systems may need just as much attention.

This is also why an audit of all buildings and outbuildings matters.

The obscure connection in the least visited part of the estate could be the one everyone assumes somebody else has checked.

What should a multi-academy trust do differently?

For a multi-academy trust, the switch-off is an opportunity to think at estate level.

One school may already have digital telephony while another still operates an older telephone system.

A third may have lift lines under one supplier and alarm signalling under another.

Different broadband arrangements, contracts and numbering structures may also exist across the trust.

Treating every site as a completely isolated project can lead to duplication and inconsistent solutions.

A central audit can help the trust understand the overall picture.

That does not mean every school has to use identical technology.

It means decisions can be made with awareness of what the trust already has, what standards it wants to establish and where common management or support could make sense.

A MAT may also choose to sequence migrations rather than change every site on the same day.

That gives teams time to test the approach, learn from earlier sites and reduce the operational risk of a large simultaneous change.

What if our school has already moved its phones to VoIP?

Do not automatically assume the PSTN project is finished.

Your telephone system may already be completely digital while other services still use analogue connections.

This is probably one of the most important final checks a school can make.

Ask:

Did we migrate the telephone system, or did we audit the entire estate?

Those are not the same thing.

A modern telephone platform does not automatically migrate an old lift line, alarm dialler, gate system or specialist device.

If the previous project focused exclusively on voice communications, now is a sensible time to review everything else.

Schools that have already migrated their phones are in a good position because one major part of the work may already be complete.

The remaining task is to confirm that nothing has been overlooked.

Why is September a better time to act than January?

January 2027 is the deadline, not an ideal project start date.

A migration may involve more than choosing technology.

There may be supplier conversations, surveys, quotes, contract reviews, number porting, equipment availability, network preparation, installation scheduling and testing.

Then there are school-specific constraints.

Changes may need to fit around teaching hours, examinations, holidays, safeguarding processes and access to buildings.

Third-party contractors may be involved.

A lift company may need to attend separately from the communications provider.

An alarm supplier may have its own lead time.

A number-porting date may need to align with a telephone-system cutover.

This is where urgency should be understood sensibly.

There is still time to plan.

But the amount of available contingency reduces as the deadline gets closer.

Finding an old analogue dependency now creates a planning task.

Finding the same dependency a few days before the service is due to disappear creates an emergency.

What happens if a school waits too long?

The risk is not that every service will suddenly disappear without any communication from providers.

Suppliers have been migrating customers for some time, and Ofcom says organisations should respond when providers contact them about the change.

The greater risk for a school is discovering complexity too late.

For example, a service may appear straightforward until the equipment supplier confirms that the existing device is not supported on a digital line.

A school may then need replacement hardware, another contractor and a different installation date.

A phone migration may need numbers ported from several providers rather than one.

A network may need additional configuration before new communications services are deployed.

A critical device may require power resilience that had not previously been considered.

None of these problems is unusual or impossible to solve.

They simply become harder to manage when time is limited.

How should schools evaluate a replacement communications solution?

The replacement should start with the school’s requirements rather than the product.

• How many users need telephony?
• How many sites are involved?
• Which telephone numbers must be retained?
• What call flows does reception need?
• Do staff need to work across different sites?
• What happens outside normal school hours?
• What level of resilience is required?
• Does the solution need to integrate with existing systems?
• What support will be available during and after migration?

For organisations considering the broader communications platform rather than only the deadline, Qual’s business VoIP services can help schools understand planning, migration, deployment and ongoing support.

The key is not to select technology because it is fashionable or heavily promoted.

The correct solution is the one that suits the school’s actual environment and can be supported properly after it goes live.

Should the school review its network at the same time?

It is sensible to confirm that the network can support the proposed digital communications environment.

VoIP depends on IP connectivity.

That means internet reliability, switching, local network configuration, resilience and appropriate capacity can all matter.

A small school with a modest number of handsets may have straightforward requirements.

A multi-site trust or large secondary school could be more complex.

The objective is not necessarily to turn a telephone migration into a huge network project.

It is to identify dependencies early enough that they can be addressed if required.

If an existing network is already suitable, that is useful to know.

If it is not, discovering the issue during planning is preferable to discovering it after the telephone system has been deployed.

What should schools expect from a communications provider?

A school should expect more than a product list.

A provider should be willing to understand the existing environment before recommending a replacement.

That includes the existing telephone service, user requirements, numbers, sites, call routing, network, resilience and migration constraints.

They should be clear about what is included, what is not included, what needs to happen before migration and what support is available afterwards.

They should also be comfortable identifying where another specialist needs to be involved.

A communications provider should not pretend to be the lift-maintenance company or fire-alarm specialist.

If a third-party device depends on legacy connectivity, the appropriate equipment supplier may need to confirm the supported replacement.

Good project management is partly about knowing when different specialists need to work together.

What should schools do now?

For a school that has not yet completed this work, I would reduce the project to seven practical stages:

1. Audit the entire estate, including buildings, outbuildings, devices, services and old copper connections.
2. Identify what each connection is actually supporting, who owns it and whether it is still required.
3. Remove what is genuinely redundant rather than recreating unnecessary legacy services digitally.
4. Speak to the relevant supplier for each service that still needs to operate, particularly alarms, lifts, access systems and specialist equipment.
5. Plan the digital replacement, including voice communications, network readiness, number continuity and power resilience.
6. Schedule migration and testing early enough to leave contingency for supplier delays or unexpected dependencies.
7. Document the new environment so the school knows what replaced each legacy service and who supports it.

That is a much safer approach than treating 31 January as the date on which the school needs to start thinking about the change.

How can Qual help schools prepare?

For some schools, the audit may confirm that almost everything has already been migrated.

For others, it may uncover a mixture of old services, suppliers and technologies that need to be organised into one plan.

Qual Limited can help schools understand their existing communications environment, identify where further investigation is needed, plan an appropriate digital telephone solution and coordinate the technical migration.

We can also help schools look at the surrounding IT infrastructure that supports modern communications and provide ongoing support after the transition is complete.

Our wider IT solutions for education are designed around the reality that schools need technology to work together — networking, communications, devices, security and support cannot always be treated as completely separate projects.

The most valuable starting point is often not:

“Which phone system should we buy?”

It is:

“What do we have today, what still depends on the old network, and what needs to change before January?”

Once those questions are answered, the technology decisions become much clearer.

The PSTN deadline is fixed. Your migration plan does not need to be rushed.

The move away from traditional analogue services is happening.

For services using the BT Openreach network, 31 January 2027 is now close enough that schools should know whether their preparation is complete.

That does not mean schools should panic.

It means uncertainty should now be replaced with information.

If the estate has been fully audited, the replacement services are in place and everything has been tested, document the result and move forward with confidence.

If there are still unknown lines, unidentified devices or services that nobody is certain about, now is the time to investigate them.

If a replacement telephone system still needs to be planned, begin the conversation while there is room to design and implement it properly.

The goal is not simply to beat a date.

It is to reach January knowing that critical communications, safety systems and operational services have been considered and that the school understands what will happen when the old connections are withdrawn.

Has your school completed its PSTN switch-off audit?

If you are confident that every analogue dependency has been identified and migrated, you may already be ready.

If you are not sure, that uncertainty is worth resolving.

Qual Limited can help schools and multi-academy trusts review their current communications environment, understand what still needs attention and plan an appropriate migration before the January 2027 deadline.

Speak to Qual about reviewing your school’s PSTN and communications requirements.