Openreach announces another 98 exchanges in its shift from copper to fibre for telephone services

Openreach is pushing on with its plans to upgrade the old PSTN (analogue phone network) to new digital services where the broadband retailers are much more in control of the phone service and delivering these full fibre rather than the aging copper network.

The latest move announced earlier this week was another tranche of exchanges covering 954,000 premises on 98 exchanges to be given a stop sell date i.e. a date from when new copper phone services will not be sold to the various retailers on those exchanges. The maintenance of existing copper phone services will continue beyond that date of course. The latest set of exchanges is Tranche 7 and the order restriction implementation date is set as 8th February 2023.

The stop sell dates have passed on some 181 exchanges and in an effort to make it easier for people to see where these exchanges are and the dates we have updated the exchange layer on our broadband maps to add the information Openreach publish each quarter.

Openreach telephone exchanges with additional PSTN to fibre stop sell information
NOTE: As of 10am 13/1/2022 the layer is still rendering for zoom level 11 and higher

The map changes the detail shown based on the zoom level, so if you zoom out to the whole UK view the basic dots for Market A/B are all you see, but at zoom level 6 (exact zoom figure can be seen as first figure after # in map URL) a TR will appear next to the exchange dot if on the Openreach tranche lists, then as you zoom in more detail is revealed from which Tranche an exchange is in and the expected stop sell date.

For those who have got this far and have no idea about what is going on, the simple version is that Openreach is that over time your phone/broadband retailer will be asking you to plug your existing phone into the broadband router rather than the old phone socket you have used for decades. There are a growing number of people (particularly those with BT Consumer) where the switch is happening well ahead of the Openreach stop sell, i.e. people will be getting letters explaining they are being moved to Digital Voice and what to do.

The upside to this switch is that as the old PSTN hardware in phone exchanges hits its end of life that Openreach will be able to stop worrying about it once migrations are complete on individual exchanges. This should in time also mean more features on phone handsets and better call quality. The downside is that any change to a service that has stayed the same for decades is going to confuse millions of people and the increase in extreme weather events causing power outages are highlighting the issue that the new fibre based phone services need a battery back-up in the home. Retailers are compelled by Ofcom to offer a short term battery (generally an hour of run time) for vulnerable customers but particularly after Storm Arwen in November 2021 that caused widespread power outages for extended periods of time it is time for Ofcom to re-assess the requirements as with the extended outage not just vulnerable people but everyone lost power for so long that even mobile networks were having problems.

Many millions of people don’t bother with plugging a telephone into the phone line already, instead relying on their mobile phone already and some broadband providers having shifted towards their main marketing being broadband only with no support for a telephone.

The two areas for those concerned about these changes (or just interested) is Salisbury where a trial will happen moving everyone to full fibre and Mildenhall which will use a mixture of copper and fibre solutions in its trial e.g. low speed VDSL2 for those who just want a phone service but no broadband at same price as WLR (Wholesale Line Rental). These two trials are expected to take place in Spring 2023.

How well the Mildenhall trial goes in particular is important as the used of mixed VDSL2 and FTTP services will be key to getting whole exchanges switched over. Particularly for those on long copper lines without access to FTTP.

Twelve months ago, we informed our Communication Provider customers that we would stop selling copper products in exchanges that reach 75% full fibre coverage. This is now a reality for 181 fibre exchanges covering around 2m premises across the UK in what is a major stepping-stone in our 10-15 year journey to move from a copper network to full fibre.

Just over two years from now, Openreach will stop selling products that rely on the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). And over the next four years, we’ll upgrade some 13 million analogue lines – including the now ageing traditional landline telephone service – to digital All-Internet Protocol (All-IP).

As part of this huge transformation programme, we’ve been preparing to withdraw older analogue products in two trial areas – Salisbury and Mildenhall – and we’re now notifying Communications Providers that these products will be withdrawn in Spring 2023.

We’re working closely with broadband providers and the wider industry to make sure customers can be upgraded smoothly and these trials are helping us to identify and address any issues that might prevent that.

James Lilley, Director for managed customer migrations, Openreach

The biggest challenge in this will be the elderly population where sending out letters may not be enough and help will need to be provided i.e. sending people out to do the switchover and explain the issues around power cuts. There are going to be some challenging visits where someone who only has a 1980’s phone handset plugged in and they now need a fibre ONT, broadband router and the phone plugging into that and NOT to switch any of this off before going to bed.