This topic

OAP with PSTN only - switch to DV - WLR price increases

BarkingMadBarking — Thu, 05 Feb 2026 16:57:02 GMT

MiL is with BT and has PSTN only - no BB.

I'm aware that WLR prices will rise in April, July and October 2026 to encourage people to move to DV.

I'm assuming BT will be in contact before April? Or do the price rises not affect customers with PSTN only? I would expect BT to be driving this so the customer doesn't pay extra.

FTTP is available and currently no personal care alarms etc.

What will happen?

Re: OAP with PSTN only - switch to DV - WLR price increases

licquorice — Thu, 05 Feb 2026 17:03:00 GMT

Not sure why you think price rise encourages move to DV, DV and PSTN prices are exactly the same.

Re: OAP with PSTN only - switch to DV - WLR price increases

BarkingMadBarking — Thu, 05 Feb 2026 17:06:18 GMT

I understand PSTN is delivered using the WLR product, and WLR rental prices are increasing.

https://www.openreach.com/news/openreach-announces-price-changes-to-encourage-digital-adoption-of-newer-more-reliable-and-better-value-technology/

Re: OAP with PSTN only - switch to DV - WLR price increases

licquorice — Thu, 05 Feb 2026 17:13:52 GMT

Telephony will be the same price, regardless of how it is delivered. Either both will go up or both will remain the same, I suspect the former.

Her DV may not be delivered by broadband, rather by the ATA being at the exchange rather than home. She will no doubt be informed in due course.

Re: OAP with PSTN only - switch to DV - WLR price increases

BarkingMadBarking — Thu, 05 Feb 2026 17:17:32 GMT

Isn't the ATA at the exchange this???: https://www.btwholesale.com/products-and-services/voice/pre-digital-phone-line.html

I thought this solution would be only for "edge cases" as outlined in the doc.

Re: OAP with PSTN only - switch to DV - WLR price increases

licquorice — Thu, 05 Feb 2026 17:18:31 GMT

Anecdotally on the forum, there are customers that have been moved to PDPL. Either way nothing you can do about it, either the price will rise or it won't. Come January 2027 the question becomes academic.

Re: OAP with PSTN only - switch to DV - WLR price increases

BarkingMadBarking — Thu, 05 Feb 2026 17:21:04 GMT

Just trying to work out what BT's plans are for PSTN only customers.

Surely there should be a web page?

Any BT mods feel like chipping in?

Re: OAP with PSTN only - switch to DV - WLR price increases

gg30340 — Thu, 05 Feb 2026 18:13:25 GMT

See links

Digital Voice | Digital Home Phone | BT

We’re switching from analogue to digital landlines - About BT | BT Plc

Moving landlines to digital technologies - GOV.UK

Openreach clears major hurdle to PSTN switch-off

Re: OAP with PSTN only - switch to DV - WLR price increases

iniltous — Thu, 05 Feb 2026 20:23:11 GMT

https://www.openreach.com/news/openreach-announces-price-changes-to-encourage-digital-adoption-of-newer-more-reliable-and-better-value-technology/

This is a price increase for the service provider , it’s not just BT with WLR customers, it’s every provider that still has these type of customers.

Openreach obviously don’t (can’t) bill consumers directly , they bill service providers , the service provider could simply absorb the WLR pricing increase but as far as passing the increased costs on ,( the most likely outcome ) that’s up to the individual service provider.

These increases are to encourage movement away from WLR products, given the numbers still on these products, clearly non financial encouragement hasn’t proven successful with some providers so far , it’s time for a more forceful incentive that will hit the service providers bottom line , to get them to get their customers off WLR .

With regard to BT’s remaining WLR customers, I suspect a migration to a PDPL (pre digital phone line ) will take place before the increased WLR pricing comes into effect.

Re: OAP with PSTN only - switch to DV - WLR price increases

BarkingMadBarking — Fri, 06 Feb 2026 08:11:44 GMT

Thank you to everyone for their replies.

I appreciate OR sets the prices and service providers bill the end customers and usually need to cover any increase in costs.

If PDPL is the way forward then OK but I thought it was just for edge cases.

April is a few months away, and I thought I'd be able to find a documented strategy for PSTN only customers at this point. For example, we'll move PSTN only customers to PDPL or FTTP with a limited bandwidth router.

Re: OAP with PSTN only - switch to DV - WLR price increases

licquorice — Fri, 06 Feb 2026 08:27:31 GMT

But the technology doesn't matter, price will be the same regardless of delivery. BT will chose the most cost effective method to them. The end customer isn't impacted.

Re: OAP with PSTN only - switch to DV - WLR price increases

iniltous — Fri, 06 Feb 2026 08:38:02 GMT

I would imagine that if BT did publish their own strategy then many would assume it’s industry wide and not specific to BT .
As far as PDPL being edge cases only , that’s really dependent on what you class as an edge case, customers that are PSTN telephone only and haven’t potentially haven’t renewed their contract in years would seem to me to be edge cases …..a limited bandwidth broadband profile with a router supplied for free is a more long term solution and would be the only solution to addresses with FTTP and new telephony only customers, but it’s reasonable to assume those with standalone telephony are the same group that would be upset having their telephony dependent on ‘broadband’ and susceptible to power outages …plus with any change like that the customer has to make a positive response to a new installation (in the case of FTTP ) or accepting and fitting new equipment in the case of SoGEA, PDPL is the path of least resistance.

Re: OAP with PSTN only - switch to DV - WLR price increases

BarkingMadBarking — Fri, 06 Feb 2026 08:53:21 GMT

Thank you @iniltous

If PDPL is the path, and it seems the most practical from the points you have made then I'd hope the end user wouldn't be penalised for using the old WLR product because the don't have any real choice (apart from having SoGEA install and migrating their PSTN to another VOIP provider) - but this would probably be more expensive.

Budgets are under pressure.

As you say, I think the WLR price increases are geared at customers with broadband that can move to DV but haven't (or don't need a landline) and not PSTN only customers.

I'll sit and wait to see what happens.

Re: OAP with PSTN only - switch to DV - WLR price increases

iniltous — Fri, 06 Feb 2026 10:36:51 GMT

PDPL isn’t a WLR product so should not be affected by the increased prices service providers will face for customers they have failed to move onto ‘better’ products.

Re: OAP with PSTN only - switch to DV - WLR price increases

BarkingMadBarking — Fri, 06 Feb 2026 10:52:49 GMT

Apologies for conflating. I'd thought the continued use of copper for PDPL meant WLR was still being used.

I'll sit and wait.