Plenty of businesses pay one company for the phone line and another for the internet. It usually happens by accident, over years of switching one thing and not the other. Having phone and broadband with different providers has never been a real problem before. With the old network closing in January, it is now the fiddliest situation to untangle, and there is a deadline attached.
Why phone and broadband with different providers causes a headache
The old phone network shuts down on 31st January 2027. Around 1.5 million lines across the UK still need moving across, down from 1.9 million in June, so the queue is shortening quickly.
Most of those moves are straightforward. Yours is less so. When two companies share the same physical line, neither one owns the whole job, and neither wants to pay for the bit that isn't theirs. As a result, these lines have been drifting to the back of the queue while simpler ones get done first.
What changed in August
Openreach has now stepped in and covered the cost of the connection for exactly this situation, which removes the argument about who pays. The offer was confirmed in August and runs to 31st October 2026.
In practice that means one company will take over both services. You end up with a single bill, a single number to ring when something breaks and nobody passing you between two help desks. Honestly, most businesses in this position should have done it years ago on those grounds alone.
The jargon, in plain English
- Split lines. The industry term for your setup. One company bills you for the phone, another for the broadband, both using the same wire.
- Migration. Moving your service from the old network to a modern one. It usually happens remotely, without an engineer visit.
- Number porting. Keeping your existing phone number when you move. You do not lose the number you have advertised for years.
- ATA. A small adaptor that lets an ordinary handset work on a modern connection, so you can often keep the phones you already own.
How to sort phone and broadband with different providers
Start by looking at your bills. If two separate companies charge you every month and only one of them mentions broadband, that is the setup we are talking about.
Next, decide who you want to end up with, because you do get a choice here. Then let them handle the paperwork with the other side. A decent provider will do the chasing, so you do not have to.
"These are the ones we worry about, because everyone assumes somebody else is dealing with it. Nobody is. If you're paying two companies for one line, ring one of them this month and get it moving, because the free window closes at the end of October."
Matt Stead, Director, Excel Communications
Pubs, hotels and restaurants tend to be the worst affected, largely because their phone line was set up long before anyone thought about broadband. Our hospitality solutions page covers what that looks like in practice.
If you are not sure what you have, we will look at it for you and explain it in normal words. Have a look at our business broadband and telephony options or call us on 0800 711 7111.
