Response from Openreach on the issues raised;
James Lilley, Customer Migrations Director, for Openreach, said:
“The PSTN is increasingly unreliable and coming to the end of its life*, so we agree that businesses who want to avoid disruption should prioritise their migrations to digital services ASAP.
“We shared details of our new contracts in August 2024, and they don’t contain significant changes to the level of support we offer. The new terms simply give us more flexibility to help customers upgrade as the January 2027 deadline approaches.”
*Ofcom’s recent Connected Nations report highlights that, in 2024, the number of significant PSTN resilience incidents reported increased sharply by 45%.
Original Spitfire Statement
On 31st December 2025, the existing contract between service providers and Openreach will expire – what happens next?
MD Harry Bowlby: businesses need guidance not guesswork-
Spitfire Network Services Limited (Spitfire), the award-winning provider of voice, internet, IoT and wide area network connectivity services, today called on Openreach to provide much needed clarity for service providers and the businesses they support on new contracts related to the PSTN Switch Off.
On 31st December 2025, the existing contract between service providers and Openreach will expire. And Openreach has already given notice that this agreement won’t be renewed in its current form. What happens next? A new contract, yes—but exactly what it will contain remains unknown. What is expected, however, is a marked change in support terms—most notably, less favourable service level agreements (SLAs) for repairs and response.
The impact could be damaging for services providers and their customers – it means businesses who leave their migration until the last moment will not only face potential delays from capacity bottlenecks but could also find themselves tied to less responsive support structures. In other words: when something breaks, it’ll take longer to fix. And when connectivity is critical to operations—be it voice services, broadband, payment systems, alarms, or IoT devices—every extra hour of downtime is a risk to a businesses’ bottom line.
The next contract between Openreach and service providers will almost certainly reflect the industry’s shift away from analogue infrastructure. Resources are already being reallocated to digital infrastructure, and it’s clear that support for the old copper-based systems will begin to taper off, just as more organisations finally scramble to switch.
Harry Bowlby, Managing Director, Spitfire Network Services Limited said: “The truth is no one yet knows what the new contracts will look like. But based on the trajectory of telecoms policy, the focus will be digital-first, and the terms for legacy support will decline. The writing is on the wall for PSTN and ISDN services, and while the final stages of this transition are still in motion, the direction is still unclear. Businesses need guidance, not guesswork.
“This is where working with experienced partners, those who understand both the legacy environment and the future IP landscape, can make all the difference. It’s about making the right switch, in the right way, at the right time,” added Bowlby.
Spitfire’s commitment to UK SMBs considering their shift to all-IP includes offering a choice of technologies to ensure every customer has a suitable service for the future for both connectivity and telephony and ensuring that every customer migrates to the new services as smoothly as possible. Spitfire also keeps business leaders informed of the elements of the project that impact them so they can make unrushed, informed decisions.
For more information or to contact Spitfire Network Services Ltd directly, organisations should visit www.spitfire.co.uk.
Be First to Comment