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

[BarkingMadBarking]

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? 

[licquorice]

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

[BarkingMadBarking]

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-ne...

[licquorice · Accepted solution]

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.

[BarkingMadBarking]

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.

[licquorice]

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.

[BarkingMadBarking]

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? 

[gg30340]

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

[iniltous]

https://www.openreach.com/news/openreach-announces-price-changes-to-encourage-digital-adoption-of-ne...

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. 

[BarkingMadBarking]

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.