11 November 2026
Can you keep your landline number without broadband?
Yes. The digital replacement for a copper line runs over broadband, but your number does not have to. Three ways to keep it, what each depends on, and the order to do things in so you don't lose it.
£9.99 a monthUp to 300 minutes a month to a UK mobile included, then 5p a minute.Pick a number
Yes, you can. The number is yours to keep and it does not have to live on a broadband line. What is changing is the wire, not your right to the number — but the default replacement for a copper landline does run over broadband, so if you have no broadband at the premises, or you don't want your phone to depend on it, you have a decision to make before somebody makes it for you.
First, what is actually happening. The old analogue phone network is being switched off across the UK in January 2027, for every provider and not only BT. BT describes what replaces it as digital landlines which work using broadband: the handset plugs into the router instead of the wall socket, and calls travel over the internet connection. For most homes and offices that is a small change. It is a bigger one if the building has no broadband, or has broadband you would not trust with your only phone line.
Option one is to stay where you are and let your provider handle it. If you are with BT and have no broadband, BT says it will keep you on what it calls a dedicated landline service, which works the way your phone does now and needs no new equipment. The Rural Services Network's summary of BT's plan says that arrangement runs until 2030 or until a digital alternative is available. That is a bridge, and a useful one, but it is BT's arrangement for BT's customers and it has an end date. If you are with another provider, ask them the same question in writing: what happens to my line, and my number, if I do not take your broadband?
Option two is to take the broadband and the digital landline that comes with it. You keep the number and a phone on the desk. What you take on is a dependency the copper line never had: the phone now needs mains power and a working internet connection, so a power cut or a broadband fault takes the phone down with it. For a home that is an inconvenience. For a business whose customers ring to book, it is a day's work that went to somebody else.
Option three is to stop having the number on a line at all. Landline numbers can be moved from one provider to another — it is called porting, and every provider has to honour the request — and the provider you move it to does not have to be one that puts a line into your building. Ours doesn't. The number sits on a carrier's network, and when someone dials it we place an ordinary call to your mobile. There is no router in the path and no broadband in the path, so there is nothing at the premises to lose power. What it does depend on is your mobile having signal, and that is worth being honest about: if you work somewhere with no coverage, this is the wrong answer for you.
Whichever you choose, the order matters more than anything else. Do not cancel the old line first. A number that is cancelled goes back to your old provider, and once it is back in their pool you have no right to it. Sign up with the new provider, ask them to transfer the number, wait until the transfer has completed, and only then let the old line go — the old provider will normally close the account on the day the number moves. A single landline number usually takes two to four weeks, and you will be asked to prove the number is yours: photo ID, proof of address and a recent bill.
If option three is the one, this is what it costs with us: £9.99 a month, no connection fee, no contract, and nothing to pay for the transfer. You get a temporary number first so that nothing is on hold while the transfer runs, and when it completes your own number replaces it. Up to 300 minutes a month to a UK mobile included, then 5p a minute. One limit to know about before you start: we can transfer landline and freephone numbers in, but not mobile numbers.