Guidance

UK transition from analogue to digital landlines: guidance for local authorities

How local authorities can ensure the continued function of their telephone and non-telephone devices as the analogue landline network (also called the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN)) is retired.

Documents

Details

Guidance to support to local authorities to migrate their devices and services from the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) to digital alternatives.

The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) has collaborated with local authorities and telecoms companies to develop this guidance.

What is expected from local authorities

Communication providers are retiring the PSTN by January 2027 at the latest. The migration is already underway, and most users will be migrated before January 2027.

For local authorities, this means that many telephone and non-telephone devices (and local authority services that rely on the PSTN) will lose function if local authorities do not take active steps to migrate their services. This guidance highlights the risks of the migration to local authorities and the approaches that they can take to respond.

DSIT recommends that local authorities audit their estates

Updates to this page

Published 18 November 2024

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