SoGEA Broadband: Business Internet Without a Phone Line

Why does SoGEA exist?

Historically, broadband over copper required an active phone line underneath it — you paid line rental whether or not anyone used the phone. SoGEA breaks that link: one order, one line, broadband only. The timing matters because the analogue phone network it replaced is being retired: the PSTN and ISDN switch-off completes on 31 January 2027, and roughly 2.4 million UK businesses are still on analogue services (with around a third of large corporations still running some analogue lines — Aircall, 2025). Everyone on FTTC-with-phone-line eventually needs to make this move.

What speeds does SoGEA deliver?

SoGEA uses the same fibre-to-the-cabinet infrastructure as FTTC: up to 80Mbps down and 20Mbps up, with real-world speeds depending on your distance from the cabinet. It's the right product where full fibre hasn't arrived yet — where FTTP is available (100Mbps–1Gbps+), FTTP is almost always the better order for the same reasons at similar money.

What happens to your phone numbers?

Voice moves to hosted VoIP running over the broadband — typically £5.95–£20 per user/month, with your existing numbers ported across (allow 5–15 working days for porting). Done properly, the combined SoGEA + VoIP bill is usually lower than the old broadband + line rental + phone system stack, and the phones gain mobile apps, Teams integration and call routing the analogue line never had. See business VoIP for how AMVIA runs the voice side.

The bottom line for the 2027 switch-off

Don't wait for the deadline: engineer availability tightens as it approaches, and a rushed migration is how numbers get lost. The sequence that works: check what your postcode supports (SoGEA or FTTP), order the data line, port the numbers to VoIP, then cease the analogue services. AMVIA manages that sequence end to end — see the full PSTN switch-off guide for the timeline and planning detail.