Openreach has named over 150 locations in the UK where customers will no longer be able to purchase legacy analogue copper-based phone/broadband services.

The firm emailed Silicon UK a list of a further 163 new exchange locations, covering more than 1.6 million premises across the UK, where it plans to halt the sale of traditional copper based phone and broadband services and migrate customers to an ultrafast Full Fibre connection (aka FTTP).

This switch over from copper-based telephone lines to fibre has been ongoing for a while now. It was in December 2020 when Openreach had first announced customers in the Wiltshire city of Salisbury would become the first in the United Kingdom to switch to a full fibre network.

FTTP deployment

Openreach it should be remembered inherited the UK’s public switched telephone network (PSTN) network from its predecessor (the General Post Office).

Copper at the time was a versatile material that served as the backbone for the UK’s PSTN for many decades.

But since 2010 BT and Openreach have been spending billions of pounds installing much faster fibre alongside these analogue copper connections. The carrier has also pledged to spend £15bn for a full-fibre broadband to 25 million homes by January 2027.

As part of this latter full-fibre pledge, Openreach said its latest update is its “biggest ever notification – with 1.6 million homes impacted by the move to digital in the next 12 months.”

Openreach is giving Communication Providers (CPs) such as BT, Sky, TalkTalk and Vodafone, that use its network, a year’s notice that it will no longer be selling legacy analogue products and services where Full Fibre becomes available to a majority (>75 percent) of premises in these new exchange locations.

‘Stop Sell’ is triggered when a majority (75 percent) of premises connected to a particular exchange can get ultrafast Full Fibre. Customers who then want to switch, upgrade or re-grade their broadband or phone service will have to take a new digital service over Openreach’s Full Fibre network.

Game changing tech

Openreach said that by the start of June , ‘stop sell’ rules will have already been activated in 943 exchanges across the UK – meaning more than eight million premises will be under active Stop Sell – i.e. premises where Full Fibre is available to a majority of premises and copper products cannot be sold – around 44 percent of Openreach’s total full fibre footprint.

The 163 named locations include telephone exchanges in Clacton-on-Sea, Dunstable, Hertford, Northampton, Peterborough, Tamworth, St Albans, certain exchanges in London and Greater Manchester, and many others.

“We’re moving to a digital world and Openreach is helping with that transformation by rolling out ultrafast, ultra-reliable, and future-proofed digital Full Fibre across the UK,” said James Lilley, Openreach’s Managed Customer Migrations Manager. “This game changing technology will become the backbone of our economy for decades to come, supporting every aspect of our public services, businesses, industries, and daily lives.”

“Already, our Full Fibre network is available to 18 million homes and businesses, with 6.5 million premises currently taking a service,” said Lilley.

“The stop sell programme is a critical part of ensuring that the UK’s communication infrastructure is ready to meet the demands of the future,” said Lilley. “Taking advantage of the progress of our Full Fibre build and encouraging people to upgrade where a majority can access our new network is the right thing to do as it makes no sense, both operationally and commercially, to keep the old copper network and our new fibre network running side-by-side. As copper’s ability to support modern communications declines, the immediate focus is getting people onto newer, future proofed technologies.”

Users can visit Openreach’s online postcode checker here to see if they can already order a Full Fibre service or alternatively, check by contacting their service provider.