Openreach accelerates copper broadband Stop Sell

A further 92 new exchange locations, covering a minimum of 615,000 premises across the UK, have been earmarked by BT Group’s broadband provision division Openreach as fulfilling criteria to stop offering the sale of traditional copper-based phone and broadband services, its Stop Sell programme.

In practical terms, the company’s Stop Sell process is triggered when a majority (75%) of premises connected to a particular BT comms exchange can get a full-fibre connection. Customers who then want to switch, upgrade or regrade their broadband or phone service will have to take a new digital service over Openreach’s full-fibre network. Customers in these exchanges not yet able to get full fibre at their premises won’t be impacted and can stay on their existing copper-based service until full fibre becomes available.

The programme was first mooted in 2019 to encourage people to upgrade to new digital services over an ultrafast full-fibre connection. The BT-owned company believes legacy network skills and parts are increasingly difficult to come by, and new digital services such as Voice over IP (VoIP), video conferencing and a whole range of apps have become more popular and effective for people communicating with one another.

By eventually retiring analogue phone lines, Openreach said it will create a simplified network that will meet the enhanced needs of an increasingly digital society. As regards the importance of the move, Openreach sees the shift from copper to fibre networks as every bit as significant as the move from analogue to digital and black and white TV to colour.

BT is in the process of transitioning more than 14 million traditional lines across the UK onto digital services to realise its plan on a national basis. Following the decision to shut down the public switched telephone network (PSTN), it was agreed to test processes for migrating customers to fibre services and, ultimately, withdraw legacy copper services and the wholesale line rental products that rely on them. Openreach said it will be upgrading just under nine million remaining analogue lines, including the now ageing traditional landline telephone service, to new digital ones.

As copper’s ability to support modern communications declines, the immediate focus is getting people onto newer, future-proofed technologies. Openreach has already been implementing a UK-wide Stop Sell on sales of new analogue wholesale line rental and related broadband products. The business is giving communications providers such as BT, Sky, TalkTalk and Vodafone, which all use its network, a year’s notice that it will no longer be selling legacy analogue products and services in these circumstances.

Openreach calculates that by summer 2024, the Stop Sell rules will have been activated in more than 700 exchanges. This means there will be around six million premises where full-fibre is available to three-quarters of businesses and homes, so new copper products cannot be sold. The 92 new exchanges added to the programme cover all four nations in the UK, encompassing the most populated areas, such as Greater London and Manchester, as well as rural communities and conurbations in Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland.

Commenting on the roll-out, James Lilley, Openreach’s managed customer migrations manager, said: “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. Already, our full-fibre network is available to more than 14 million homes and businesses, with more than four million premises currently taking a service.

“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.”