Quick summary: Thousands of Irish businesses are still running on a physical landline — a copper PSTN or ISDN trunk terminating on-site hardware. Many have had the same number for 10, 20, or 30 years. The good news: you don’t have to give that number up to move to a modern phone system. Dromlik, a cloud phone system for Irish businesses, migrates your existing landline number to VoIP — the number stays identical, customers notice nothing, and your business gains call routing, mobile apps, call recording, CRM integration, and an AI receptionist. Plans start from €12/user/month (annual billing). The only thing you lose is the copper wire.
The Irish Business Landline in 2026
The traditional business landline has served Irish businesses well for decades. A physical number — a Dublin 01, a Cork 021, a Limerick 061 — terminated on an on-site PBX or a simple analogue line. Reliable, familiar, and for many businesses, the number that’s been on their signage, their invoices, and their Google listing since they opened.
The problem in 2026 is not the number. The number is valuable — it has years of SEO authority attached to it, it’s what existing customers have saved in their phones, and it signals local presence in a way no mobile number can. The problem is the infrastructure behind it.
A physical landline in 2026 means:
- Calls that ring a desk nobody may be sitting at
- No routing to mobiles when staff are out of the office
- No voicemail-to-email
- No call recording without separate hardware
- No CRM integration
- No AI handling of calls outside business hours
- A monthly line rental bill with nothing to show for it beyond dial tone
- And in Northern Ireland — a hard deadline of January 2027 when BT switches off the PSTN network entirely
The solution isn’t a new number. It’s keeping the number you have and replacing the infrastructure underneath it.
A business landline number that’s been in use for 10+ years has accumulated SEO value, customer recognition, and Google Business listing authority. Number porting moves that number to a cloud system without losing any of it.
Why Irish Businesses Choose Dromlik to Replace Their Landline
Your number ports across — free. Whatever your existing Irish business number is — 01, 021, 061, 091, or any other area code — Dromlik ports it to the cloud system free of charge, managed end-to-end by our team. The number stays identical. Customers dial the same digits they always have. Nothing changes on their end.
No gap in service. During the porting window — typically 5–10 business days — your existing landline keeps working. The cutover happens when the port completes, at which point your number routes through Dromlik instead of a copper wire. There is no day when the number doesn’t work.
No hardware required. Your team takes calls on the Dromlik app on their existing mobiles and laptops. No new desk phones unless you want them. No engineer visit. No hardware installation.
Everything you were missing, immediately. The moment your number is live on Dromlik, you have call routing, voicemail to email, call recording, mobile calling, and the ability to add an AI receptionist — features that were never available on a basic landline without expensive add-ons.
Managed by Dromlik, not by you. Configuration — routing rules, IVR menus, greetings, CRM integration — is handled by the Dromlik team as part of onboarding. You don’t need a telephony engineer or an IT partner to replace your landline properly.
Landline vs Dromlik VoIP: What Changes
| Physical Landline | Dromlik VoIP | |
|---|---|---|
| Your existing number | ✓ | ✓ (ported free) |
| Works on mobile | ✗ | ✓ |
| Smart call routing | Basic or none | ✓ |
| Voicemail to email | ✗ | ✓ |
| Call recording | Rarely | ✓ Included |
| After-hours routing | Basic | ✓ Configurable |
| AI receptionist | ✗ | ✓ Add-on |
| CRM integration | ✗ | ✓ (Orbit plan) |
| Microsoft Teams integration | ✗ | ✓ |
| Multiple users on one number | ✗ | ✓ |
| Add users without hardware | ✗ | ✓ |
| EU data hosting | Depends | ✓ Standard |
| PSTN switch-off safe | ✗ | ✓ |
| Monthly cost | €30–€100+ line rental | From €12/user/month |
Getting Your Number Ported
The number porting process is straightforward. Here’s what it involves:
Step 1: Confirm your number details You’ll need your existing number, your current provider’s name, and your account reference. Dromlik’s team collects this during onboarding.
Step 2: Submit the port request Dromlik submits the porting request to your current provider on your behalf. You don’t deal with your current provider directly.
Step 3: Your existing line keeps working During the porting window — typically 5–10 business days for Irish numbers — your landline continues operating exactly as before. No interruption.
Step 4: Port completes On the agreed porting date, your number switches to Dromlik. Calls that previously rang your on-site hardware now route through the cloud system to your team’s apps. The on-site hardware is no longer needed.
Step 5: Cancel your landline contract Once the port is confirmed and everything is working, you cancel your existing line rental contract. Your number belongs to you now — not to the provider.
Most Irish landline numbers port within 5–10 business days. Your existing number keeps working throughout. There is no day when your business is unreachable.
What You Gain When You Switch
Your Team Takes Calls From Anywhere
The biggest immediate change: your business number is no longer tied to a specific location. Every team member has the Dromlik app on their existing mobile and laptop. Calls to your landline number ring all available team members simultaneously — in the office, at home, on site, or anywhere else.
For Irish businesses with staff who’ve been missing calls because they were away from their desk, this alone justifies the switch.
Intelligent Call Routing
Instead of a number that rings one phone until someone answers or it times out, you have routing rules that reflect how your business actually operates:
- During business hours — calls ring available team members in whatever order or pattern suits your business
- Outside hours — callers hear a professional after-hours greeting, can leave a voicemail that arrives in your email, or reach Niamh the AI receptionist
- On Irish bank holidays — a specific holiday message plays automatically without anyone needing to switch it on
- For different departments — sales enquiries go to the sales team, support queries go to support, without manual transfers
Voicemail That Actually Gets Heard
On a traditional landline, voicemails sit in the handset until someone remembers to check them. On Dromlik, every voicemail is emailed as an audio file with optional transcription to whoever needs to hear it — immediately after it’s left. Missed calls get followed up. Nothing sits unheard for a week.
Call Recording — Finally
Adding call recording to a traditional landline requires separate hardware or a third-party service. On Dromlik, every call is recorded automatically and stored within the EU — accessible from the dashboard, searchable by date, number, or duration, and linked to the relevant CRM record when CRM integration is enabled.
For Irish businesses in professional services, financial services, healthcare, or any sector where what was agreed on a call matters — this is a significant operational improvement available from day one.
AI Receptionist for Your Landline Number
The most significant capability gap between a traditional landline and a cloud phone system is AI call handling. When a call comes in on your old landline and nobody answers, it rings out or hits voicemail. When a call comes in on your Dromlik number and nobody answers, Niamh picks up.
She answers in natural Irish English, handles common queries, takes bookings, captures detailed messages with full context, and routes urgent calls to the right person. The caller gets a real response. Your business captures the enquiry. You call back with everything you need to know already in your inbox.
Niamh is available as a system-wide add-on at €100/month — not per user.
CRM Integration
On Dromlik’s Orbit plan, your phone number connects to HubSpot, Salesforce, Zoho, or Zendesk. Every call logged automatically to the right contact. Screen pops on inbound calls. One-click outbound dialling from inside your CRM. For businesses that have been manually logging calls since they first plugged in their landline, this is the change that saves the most time.
Microsoft Teams Integration
For businesses using Teams internally, Dromlik adds external calling directly to Teams — your existing landline number rings within the Teams interface. No additional Microsoft Teams Phone licence required.
What About On-Site PBX Hardware?
Many Irish businesses with landlines also have an on-site PBX — a hardware cabinet that manages internal extensions, routing, and voicemail. Moving to Dromlik replaces this hardware entirely. The cloud system handles everything the on-site PBX was doing, without the hardware, without the maintenance cost, and without the engineer visit every time something needs changing.
If you have SIP-compatible desk phones already, many can be repurposed on Dromlik without replacement — they connect to the cloud system via your broadband. Dromlik’s team can advise on hardware compatibility during onboarding.
For businesses with on-site PBX hardware still under a maintenance contract, check your exit terms before migrating. In most cases, the monthly saving on line rental and maintenance more than covers any early exit cost.
What About Internet Reliability?
A common concern: what happens if the broadband goes down?
Dromlik has automatic failover — if your internet connection drops, inbound calls to your number reroute automatically to a designated mobile number or to the Dromlik mobile app on your team’s phones (which works over mobile data). Your number keeps working even if the office broadband doesn’t.
For businesses in areas with less reliable broadband, this failover capability is worth confirming is configured correctly during onboarding.
Who This Is For
Moving from a physical landline to Dromlik VoIP makes sense for:
- Any Irish business still on a PSTN or ISDN line — particularly given the January 2027 switch-off deadline for Northern Ireland, and the eventual Republic of Ireland equivalent
- Businesses with staff who regularly miss calls because they’re away from their desk — trades teams on site, professionals in meetings, retail staff on the floor
- Businesses paying for line rental and getting nothing but dial tone in return — no routing, no recording, no mobile capability
- Businesses that have grown beyond a single line — where the same number needs to reach multiple people across multiple locations
- Businesses that have never had after-hours call handling — where enquiries between 6pm and 9am simply disappear
Pricing
| Plan | Monthly | Annual | What’s Included |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nucleus | €15/user/month | €12/user/month | Calling, IVR, routing, voicemail to email, call recording, mobile and desktop apps, Teams integration |
| Orbit | €27/user/month | €22/user/month | Everything in Nucleus plus omnichannel (WhatsApp, SMS, chat), CRM integrations, call centre queues, AI transcription |
| AI Receptionist (Niamh) | +€100/month system-wide | +€100/month system-wide | 24/7 AI call answering, 200 minutes included |
Irish local numbers: €5/month per number. Free number porting. No setup fees. 7-day free trial.
See the full pricing breakdown.
Keep your number. Upgrade everything else.
The Dromlik team manages your number port, configures your system, and has you live in under two weeks — with the same number your customers have always called. Free 7-day trial, no setup fees.
