After the PSTN Switch Off
EVAc: The PSTN Safety Net Businesses Shouldn’t Be Relying On
We’ve talked a lot about the PSTN switch off at Talk UK.
And with 31 January 2027 getting very close now, there’s another acronym businesses are likely to start hearing more about:
EVAc.
Emergency Voice Access.
I’ve already heard conversations that make it sound rather reassuring.
If we haven’t migrated by January, won’t EVAc just keep everything working?
Not quite.
And that’s the bit I think businesses need to understand.
What actually is EVAc?
EVAc is being introduced by Openreach as a temporary, last resort service for some lines that haven’t been successfully moved away from the old PSTN by the time it closes.
It is there to provide a degree of protection while the final migrations take place.
It is not an extension to the PSTN switch off.
It is not a replacement for properly migrating your services.
And it certainly isn’t a reason to leave everything until January.
Openreach has been very clear that the 31 January 2027 deadline hasn’t moved.
Why EVAc isn’t a failsafe
This is the important bit.
EVAc is limited and temporary. Openreach describes it as a last resort, and there is no guarantee that every remaining service will simply move seamlessly onto it.
Even where EVAc is available, it provides a much more limited service than businesses may be used to.
So if your plan is:
“We’ll leave the old line where it is and EVAc will look after it afterwards…”
I’d strongly suggest changing that plan.
And what about broadband?
This is where it gets particularly interesting.
Some businesses may have broadband that still has a technical dependency on the old PSTN without necessarily realising it.
Openreach has now announced additional safeguards intended to preserve eligible linked broadband where technically possible when a line is transferred.
But again, those three words matter:
Where technically possible.
It isn’t a blanket guarantee that every legacy broadband service will simply carry on as normal after January. Openreach itself says businesses should migrate rather than rely on these safeguards.
It’s not only about the telephone on your desk
This is something I’ve been saying for a long time.
When we talk about the PSTN switch off, people naturally think about telephone lines.
But old analogue lines can still be sitting behind all sorts of things within a building.
Alarms. Lift phones. CCTV. Door entry systems. Payment terminals. Telecare equipment. And broadband services.
I’ve spoken to businesses that genuinely believed everything had already been migrated, only for us to look properly and discover services still sitting on the old network.
That’s why assuming you’re sorted isn’t enough.
Openreach itself is currently telling businesses to check equipment connected to traditional lines, including alarms, CCTV, payment terminals and lift systems.
There are still a lot of lines left
As of Openreach’s latest update, around 1.2 million lines were still operating on the old analogue network, including around 350,000 business premises.
That’s a significant number with less than four months to go.
And the deadline isn’t moving.
Our advice
Don’t make EVAc your migration strategy.
Don’t assume your supplier has already dealt with everything.
And don’t assume that because your phones have changed, every service entering your building has changed with them.
Check.
Know what’s coming into the building.
Know what your alarms, lifts, door entry systems, payment terminals and other equipment are connected to.
Know how your broadband is delivered.
And if you’re not sure, ask somebody to look.
At Talk UK, we’re carrying out free PSTN readiness reviews for businesses. We’ll look at what’s there and tell you what, if anything, still needs attention.
And if everything is already sorted?
Brilliant.
We’ll tell you that too.
But I’d much rather a business checked now than discovered on 31 January that something everybody assumed had been migrated… hadn’t.
EVAc is a safety net.
It shouldn’t be the plan.