Summary

  • Ofcom reports 522,000 fewer fixed lines during the second quarter of 2026. The total includes traditional telephone lines and managed internet-based voice connections.
  • Company-specific figures disappeared from the quarterly fixed tables after Ofcom could not secure publication permissions. The regulator did explain that change; our earlier account said otherwise.

Look along the recent rows of Ofcom's fixed-telecom tables and the market is still there. The companies are harder to find. National totals continue, while the familiar provider breakdown stops supplying recent quarterly figures. Before asking which operator lost the business, it is worth asking why those columns went quiet.

There is a written answer. In its July 2025 change notice, Ofcom says it discussed the report with several large UK telecom providers but could not obtain the permissions needed to include company-specific data. It consequently removed provider figures and BT's market share from the fixed quarterly tables from the first quarter of 2025.

Our earlier article incorrectly said the notice gave no reason. It does. That explanation does not name a company responsible for withholding permission, disclose a commercial motive or establish that Ofcom stopped collecting the information. It tells readers why this public series became less useful for comparing providers.

A disappearing entry is not a disconnected line

The latest national movement is substantial. Ofcom's second-quarter update records a fall of 522,000 fixed lines during April to June 2026, leaving roughly 20.2 million. That is a 2.5% quarterly decline.

The definition matters more than the rounded headline. Ofcom counts PSTN lines, ISDN channels and managed voice-over-IP connections together. The first is the traditional public switched telephone network; the latter includes voice delivered using internet protocol. This is a mixed voice-service count, not an inventory of surviving copper wires.

Consider a service that changes from one included technology to another. It could remain inside the fixed-voice total. That is an illustration of how the definition works, not a claim that Ofcom measured such a migration in this quarter. A supplier trying to estimate replacement equipment needs would need the technology breakdown, rather than treating all 522,000 fewer entries as identical network retirements.

The market moves in more than one unit

Revenue and use add weight to the picture of contraction. Fixed-voice revenue was £874.2 million in the quarter, 16.1% below a year earlier. Calls originating on fixed networks fell 16.3% over the same annual comparison, to about 3.02 billion minutes. Fixed broadband moved the other way: roughly 29.5 million lines at quarter end, up 1.0% year on year.

Those are useful observations without a ready-made story about where every customer went. The report counts revenue earned over a quarter, minutes used during it and lines present at its end. It does not follow an individual customer from an old phone service to a new broadband or mobile subscription.

The revenue tables also carry a practical warning. Access and call revenue excludes VAT; internet subscription revenue is not meant to be included, although some may remain. Dividing the money by the final line count would not produce a measured household bill or tell an operator what it costs to maintain a line.

What a national total is good for

There are two separate gaps to keep in view. One concerns publication: recent provider figures are absent because the necessary permissions were not secured. The other concerns measurement: a combined voice-line count cannot reveal the movement of each technology within it. Solving the first would not automatically solve the second.

For a reader following the overall market, the release remains useful. Less fixed-voice revenue and fewer call minutes are visible changes. For someone trying to explain a particular company's performance, the missing provider detail is consequential. A national decline supplies context, not that company's result.

The next time a fixed-line headline falls, the first question should be what the counter includes. The second is whether the report still names the businesses inside it. Ofcom's figures answer the market question more readily than the company question; the published explanation for the blank columns helps show why.

Updated 25 October 2026: this account corrects the earlier claim that Ofcom had not explained the removal of company-specific figures. Its July 2025 notice states that the necessary publication permissions could not be secured. The original publication date and URL are retained.