Alarm signalling after the PSTN, 2G and 3G switch-off: what to do

The short version

Three networks that have carried alarm signals for decades are closing: the analogue phone line (PSTN), 3G and, later, 2G. In the UK the fixed-line date is under three months away and the 2G dates are public. Italy and Spain are on different timetables, and for some networks there is no official date at all.

The dates below were read on official sources on 10 November 2026. They move. Open the source again before you put one in a quote or a customer letter.

Country	Network	Status	Date	Source
UK	PSTN	Closing	By 31 January 2027 (Openreach network)	GOV.UK, Openreach
UK	2G	Switch-off announced by the operators	EE from May 2029, Virgin Media O2 from summer 2029, VodafoneThree spring 2030. Trial closures in some areas before that	GOV.UK
Italy	Copper	Closing by lists of exchanges	No national date. 6 or 12 months’ notice per exchange	AGCOM, delibera 123/25/CONS
Italy	3G	Off on the TIM network	15 October 2022	TIM
Italy	2G	Live	No official date found	TIM
Spain	Copper	Telefónica exchanges closed	May 2025	CNMC
Spain	2G and 3G	Operator by operator. Ministry consultation closed in January 2026	No common official timetable	Ministry, Vodafone España

UK: the PSTN closes by 31 January 2027

The switch-off is led by industry. The government’s guidance says the telecoms industry announced it in November 2017 and that it is not a government programme. The date is firm: the government’s connectivity timeline says all users of the Openreach PSTN need to be migrated by 31 January 2027, and Openreach said in February 2026 that BT Group will retire the network by that date and that the deadline is locked. ISDN goes too.

In that same February update Openreach counted roughly 2.8 million lines still on the PSTN, more than half a million of them serving business premises. It named fire and burglar alarms among the equipment to move, along with more than 12,000 lift lines and around 500 lines serving CCTV networks. Lines that stay face higher charges first and loss of service after. On 30 October 2026 its newsroom was warning that fewer than 100 days were left.

Two points in the government guidance matter for anyone maintaining intruder or fire alarms.

• The provider does not know what is on the line. Communications providers will not know which devices are connected to their network. Nobody at the telecoms company will warn the customer that the dialler is about to lose its path to the alarm receiving centre (ARC).
• A digital line has no power of its own. Handsets and routers are powered from the premises and will not function in a power cut without a battery or generator.

The PSTN charter signed by the main providers protects telecare users: none is to be migrated without a compatible and working solution. Its commitments are about telecare and vulnerable customers, not intruder alarms. The one hour of back-up that Ofcom guidance asks of providers covers access to emergency calls. Do not treat it as a standby figure for an alarm system.

2G and 3G

The 2G dates are on the government timeline. EE will retire 2G nationally from May 2029, with pilot closures before that. Virgin Media O2 will start in summer 2029, after local trials. VodafoneThree will switch off in spring 2030, earlier in some test areas. Trials are the part to watch: a site in a pilot area loses 2G before the national date.

Under the voluntary 2G Switch-off Charter, operators announce a date at least three years ahead and tell affected customers directly at least three months before a local trial. The charter is explicit that it does not cover the responsibilities of affected users to identify and manage their own services, because operators often have no direct relationship with end users. A SIM supplied inside a communicator by a third party is that case.

On 3G, the timeline refers to Virgin Media O2’s 3G switch-off as completed and lists no 3G dates. Ofcom’s own page could not be read automatically, so we give no operator-by-operator 3G dates here.

Italy: copper closes exchange by exchange

Italy has no single switch-off day. The regulator, AGCOM, approves closure by lists of exchanges. Its May 2025 decision publishes a list of 2,055 FiberCop local exchanges. The technical switch-off can start 6 or 12 months after publication, depending on the wholesale services sold at the exchange, and the migration then runs for 12 months. Customers keep a fixed line, moved in most cases to fibre to the cabinet.

On mobile, TIM completed its 3G switch-off on 15 October 2022. 3G devices on its network, alarm systems included, carry on with calls and SMS over 2G, with very slow data. We found no official date for 2G in Italy.

One report in an AGCOM file is worth knowing. Fastweb, the operator supplying electronic tags, told the regulator that when the tags were forced onto 2G only in tests, failed-communication alarms rose considerably. 2G as a fallback has a cost.

Spain: copper is gone, 2G has no official date

Spain’s regulator, the CNMC, places the closure of Telefónica’s copper exchanges in May 2025. Fixed-line signalling there already runs over the customer’s fibre router or over mobile.

Mobile is operator by operator. Vodafone says it began a staged 3G switch-off in 2022, effective in the main cities by late 2024, and lists security systems that use 3G as a back-up link to the receiving centre among the equipment affected. There is no common official timetable. The ministry for digital transformation ran a public consultation on the 2G and 3G switch-off from 17 December 2025 to 20 January 2026, meant to help define timetables by operator and technology. The ministry’s note names alarms, lifts and eCall among the devices needing specific measures. We have not found its outcome.

What stops working

• Diallers and digital communicators on an analogue line. They depend on the PSTN. After migration the line comes out of a router, and a router without power is a dead path.
• 3G-only modules. Where 3G is off they drop to 2G if they support it, or stop.
• 2G-only modules. They work until the SIM’s operator closes the network. In the UK that is from 2029, sooner in trial areas.

What to do on existing systems

• Audit the estate. For each system record the communicator type, the radio generation, the SIM operator and the type of fixed line. Openreach’s advice to businesses is review, test, switch, and it offers free testing of equipment at its labs.
• Replace, do not adapt. Move to an IP communicator with a 4G module. Government guidance says a new alarm should be compatible with VoIP services or able to connect to mobile services such as 4G. LTE-M is an option only where the SIM’s operator offers it: ask first.
• Keep two independent paths. IP over the fixed line and mobile radio. If the router fails, the 4G module must reach the ARC alone. For formal requirements, follow the standard the system is installed to and the ARC’s own terms. We do not summarise the paid-for standards here.
• Power the network as well as the panel. Router, optical terminal and switch need their own standby supply.
• Test through to the ARC. After every line migration, send a real test signal on each path, including with mains off.

What to tell the customer

• The old phone line ends by 31 January 2027. The alarm depends on it and the phone company does not know that.
• A 2G module works today. In the UK it has an announced end date.
• Planned now, the change is a maintenance visit. Left until after switch-off, it is an emergency call-out with the site unmonitored.

For ARCs: pull a list of connections still signalling over analogue, 2G or 3G paths and send it to the installers. A list is a better warning than a signal that never arrives.