FTTC and telephone service

I've been told by my ISP that if I do not convert to digital voice Openreach will slap a penalty, raising to £12 a month in October if I do not up grade to digital voice.
My ISP - Idnet, say they can't change my service to digital as I am on FTTC and they can't just stop supplying a phone service. If this is correct then this is nothing less than an openreach blackmail to force everyone onto FTTP.
Comments welcome folks

In reply to a post by tanshman:

I've been told by my ISP that if I do not convert to digital voice Openreach will slap a penalty, raising to £12 a month in October if I do not up grade to digital voice.
My ISP - Idnet, say they can't change my service to digital as I am on FTTC and they can't just stop supplying a phone service. If this is correct then this is nothing less than an openreach blackmail to force everyone onto FTTP.
Comments welcome folks

You haven't stated who your telephone voice service contract is with?

Also do you have FTTP available at the same property?

Edited by PCJM40 (Fri 30-Jan-26 14:23:47)

We have had a similar letter from IDNet. We are on FTTC including the phone service. FTTP is available from a local altnet but their network does not have IPv6 capability and they do not allow other ISPs to access their fibre network so I don't particularly want to sign up with them.

The first step up in the pricing takes place w/e/f 1st. April 2026 (£2.50 per month ex VAT or £3.00 per month inc VAT) for those who carry on with the WLR services. IDNet do have VoIP options available on their web-site but there have been horror stories on this forum about their lack of support for domestic users who have signed up to the IDNet VoIP services.

Our exchange is on the BT list for upgrade to FTTP (no date given) so we have been hanging on hoping that we will have the option to upgrade to an FTTP supplier over the BT network. However, IDNet have now pre-empted the situation and we are starting the process to move to another ISP with a SOGEA connection and an independent VoIP contract. We have not been overly impressed with the IDNet service for a while now and have been delaying any move in the hope that we would only have the single pain barrier of a move to FTTP/VoIP at the same time. However, needs must . . .

Edited by GonePostal (Fri 30-Jan-26 15:10:55)

Almost none of that sounds accurate, can you post the actual wording that you've received?

Really sorry to hear that, if you had been on a major providers they would most likely have moved you over to SOGEA and Digital Voice without incurring a new contract.

Throughout 2026 Openreach are increasing charges for those not taking up 'Digital Voice' (VoIP), Idnet not being able (acording to OP) to migrate those on FTTC to 'Digital Voice' is a decision of that company, other companies have such as TalkTalk, Vodafone, etc have set up to transision.

In reply to a post by jpm:

Almost none of that sounds accurate, can you post the actual wording that you've received?

E-mail from IDNet copied below;

This is an important announcement regarding your WLR copper-based services.

Please do not ignore this message.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Price increases for customers on legacy WLR copper- based services.

Openreach is permanently shutting down the old copper‑based analogue phone network (WLR) and moving the entire country to all‑IP digital services.

To this end, they are imposing a series of price increases during 2026 to 'persuade' users to move to non WLR copper services before the scheduled shutdown of WLR at the end of the year.

IDNet will be passing these increases on as a monthly surcharge to your bill.


Phone Services

From April 1st 2026 all WLR based phone services (PSTN, ISDN) will have a £2.50 ex vat (£3 inc vat) monthly surcharge applied, this will rise to £5 ex vat (£6 inc vat) on 1st July and then to £10 ex vat (£12 inc vat) on 1st October.

ISDN & PSTN MultiLine services will cease at the end of 2026, please see our Hosted PBX alternative.

Standard PSTN single line services may continue past this date (subject to Openreach consideration) but at a much higher cost and with fewer features.

👉ACTION: If you need to make outgoing & receive incoming calls we recommend you switch to a VoIP based service such as our UBoss Basic & Centrex Single Line.

If you are only receiving calls then our Number Redirection service will be the best option.

If you don't make or receive calls and only use your phone line for broadband, you should first upgrade your broadband service and then cancel your phone service.

If you are deemed a vulnerable person (health reasons or age) with a critical need for landline phone service then please let us know ASAP so we can record this on your account.



Broadband Services

From April 1st 2026 all WLR based broadband services (ADSL2+, FTTC, GFast) will have a £2.50 ex vat (£3 inc vat) monthly surcharge applied.

ADSL2+, FTTC & GFast services will cease at the end of 2026.

👉ACTION: You must engage with us urgently to decide what broadband upgrade option is appropriate for you. We will not be automatically upgrading broadband services.

You can view options and modify your existing IDNet service via our Customer Portal.


Further Information

For further information about WLR switch off please see the WLR Switch Off page on our website.

According to Idnet SoGEA, the method by which those not on full fibre can have a separate telephone service is no longer being sold by Openreach in those areas where full fibre, FTTP is available.

After much Internet searching I've concluded that the position is this.
At the end of 2026 Openreach will turn off the all WLR copper-wire based phone services.
In order to convince people to up-grade to a digital phone service they will impose the following penalties, on April 1st 2026 a £3 monthly surcharge rising to £6 on 1st July and then to £12 on 1st October.
As the only way to have a separate phone service when using FTTC is with a SoGEA service, but Openreach are not selling this service to ISPs in areas where FTTP is available.
For those not on a full fibre broadband service there is no way of having a digital phone service, or just having the phone line disconnected, which means users not on a full fibre service will either have to pay a total surcharge of £63 until their phone service is turned off, or convert to FTTP

That's what I would have expected it to say. If you want to keep your phone you can move it to their VoIP service. If you don't want your phone then you let it go.

In reply to a post by tanshman:

According to Idnet SoGEA, the method by which those not on full fibre can have a separate telephone service is no longer being sold by Openreach in those areas where full fibre, FTTP is available.

This is also inaccurate, it's possibly describing SOTAP. FTTP availability does not necessarily mean that SOGEA isn't available, though some ISPs will not offer with SOGEA if FTTP exists.

If you state what your actual issue is then people can help.

Edited by jpm (Fri 30-Jan-26 16:40:43)