The 2G switch-off charter leaves small firms to find their own SIMs

On 24 March 2026 the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) published a 2G Switch-off Charter, a set of voluntary commitments signed by mobile operators as the UK’s 2G networks, owned by BT/EE, VodafoneThree and Virgin Media O2, are switched off. It came in a bundle of telecoms modernization charters and protocols, most of them about fixed-line modernization.

For consumers it is a reasonable document. The operators promise to announce the switch-off date of their 2G network and services “a minimum of 3 years before it begins”, to trial switch-offs in different areas with at least three months’ notice to affected customers, and to check that reliable 4G or 5G coverage exists before they turn 2G off.

The sentence that matters for small and mid-sized businesses sits in the background section. The charter, DSIT says, “does not cover the responsibilities of affected users to identify and manage their own services”, because operators often have no direct customer relationship with end users. The department “expects users of the 2G network to identify any impacts to their service(s) and take appropriate steps to maintain connectivity.”

That is the real news. The government has given the operators a notice period and given business users a job. For an SMB, the 2G switch-off is not a network event at all. It is an asset-register problem, and many small firms may not have the register.

Notices go to the contract holder

On paper the communications promises are sound. Operators will contact affected customers “well in advance”, with messages “tailored to each customer type (e.g. residential, business)”, and publish guidance to help identify devices that use 2G.

The weakness is in who counts as a customer. The charter’s own technical notes define customers as “those who have a direct contractual relationship” with a mobile operator or virtual operator. A business’s own phones and data SIMs are covered. Many of its connected devices are not. A SIM inside an alarm panel, a meter, a telemetry unit or a payment device may be bought, managed and billed by the supplier of that device. Where it is, the notice goes to the alarm company or the payments provider, not to the firm whose premises the device protects.

The charter knows this. Its definition of internet of things (IoT) devices names smart meters, telecare alarms and other medical devices, and it says plainly that “many IoT devices rely on the 2G network for connectivity”. Its answer is to ask device users to look after themselves.

The copper switch-off is a warning

There is a live test of how businesses respond to a long notice period, and it is not encouraging. Openreach said on 5 February 2026 that roughly 2.8 million lines were still on the public switched telephone network (PSTN), with more than half a million of them serving business premises – with BT Group due to retire the network by 31 January 2027. It said some “smaller or specialist providers” had been slower to act, and listed fire and burglar alarms and payment terminals among the equipment that must move, along with more than 12,000 lift lines and around 500 lines serving closed-circuit television (CCTV) networks.

Openreach is also raising wholesale prices on legacy line rental: up 20% on 1 April 2026, a further 40% on 1 July and another 40% on 1 October, which it says will roughly double the 2025 rental cost. James Lilley, director of all-IP at Openreach, put the burden where the 2G charter also puts it: “If your provider hasn’t contacted you, you need to ask why.”

Much of the equipment Openreach names is hardware nobody thinks of as a phone. The 2G switch-off has the same shape, with one difference that makes it harder: the forgotten devices are wireless, so there is not even a socket on the wall to remind anyone they exist.

Procurement is the place to act

Three years sounds generous. For a small firm whose connected devices sit on three-year or five-year service contracts, it is roughly one renewal cycle. The practical response is a set of questions put to suppliers before the next contract is signed.

• Which of the devices the supplier provides or maintains connect over a mobile network, and which network technology do they use?
• Whose SIM is it, and who will receive the operator’s switch-off notice?
• What is the supplier’s plan and timetable to move each device off 2G, and who pays for the replacement hardware or site visit?

The answers belong in the contract. A firm renewing an alarm, monitoring or payment agreement in 2026 should ask for a technology-change clause that makes the supplier responsible for keeping the device connected through a network retirement, at a stated cost. IT and facilities leads should add a network-dependency column to their asset registers now, while the work can still be folded into normal replacement cycles.

The operators’ side of the deal is real. They will report to DSIT every quarter on the number of 2G IoT devices left on their networks and the total of residential and business 2G customers remaining. Those numbers will show how fast the estate is shrinking. They will not show which business owns the panel that stops working.

For many small firms the notice will land on someone else’s desk. Three years’ notice is only notice if it reaches the person who owns the problem.