Openreach Grapple with Remaining Users as First UK Exchanges to Close

Network access provider Openreach (BT) is in the process of facing one of the most difficult challenges with their pilot UK exchange closures – the question of how to handle situations where some consumer broadband and phone lines remain active by the final product switch-off date (i.e. they’ve not been migrated).

Openreach currently has c.5,600 UK exchanges, but only c.1,000 of these are needed to provide nationwide coverage of modern “fibre broadband” based services (FTTC, FTTP etc.) – the Openreach Handover Points (OHPs). However, the rollout of Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) technology, combined with the retirement of copper lines and legacy services (ADSL, WLR etc.), will soon make it economically unviable to support both the old and new exchanges.

The operator has thus long since developed a gradual plan for closing the other 4,600 exchanges – known as the Exchange Exit Programme, which starts with an initial pilot of 3 exchanges (see below) and then extends to a closure of 105 “priority exchanges” by 2030 (i.e. taking place in four phases over the next 5 years), with the rest then following through the early 2030s.

As mentioned above, three pilot exchanges have already been in this process for a while, with Deddington (covers 1,200 premises) due to reach the final product switch-off on 28th November 2025. The much larger Ballyclare (9,500 premises) and Kenton Road (9,500 premises) exchanges will reach this point just two days later (aka – Network Cease Date).

Closing an exchange and migrating affected customers is a highly complex process, which typically takes around 4-7 years (depending upon the complexity of each exchange) – starting with a Stop Sell of old products and eventually ending with everything being switched off (only after this do Openreach and ISPs remove their physical kit).

So what’s the problem?

One of the expected challenges of this process has always been the question of how to deal with any consumer lines that remain active once the switch-off date is hit. This is something that is currently causing issues for Openreach’s two biggest pilot exchanges – Ballyclare and Kenton Road.

The issue was initially raised by internet and phone providers, which identified that some of their consumer customers did not yet seem to be ready or able to migrate their lines to a different exchange/service. Openreach were similarly concerned about the number of lines with no orders after their recommended last order date.

The operator has thus been busy working closely with Ofcom, the Government (DSIT) and the Office of the Telecoms Adjudicator (OTA) to find solutions. Openreach informed ISPreview that the numbers we’re talking about here would be a small proportion of those normally served by the pilot exchanges, albeit “enough to hinder the closure” (i.e. the final switch-off date may have to be pushed back a bit for some lines).

One of the obstacles is that Openreach doesn’t yet have visibility to see what kind of users theses are (they’re currently investigating that alongside retails providers), since nobody wants to disconnect customers, particularly if some of them may turn out to be classified as “vulnerable“, or part of any other high risk group.

In the meantime, Openreach have informed providers to continue with their migrations and execute any existing plans to cease customers and get to zero on the exchange(s). At the same time, the network operator is now reviewing their position with respect to potentially ceasing consumer customers after the switch-off date and is continuing to work with everyone involved to exit the pilot exchanges safely.

In addition, the operator has made their SOGEA (standalone FTTC broadband) service available on the Ballyclare exchange, and they will also continue to allow migrations to SOGEA in Kenton Road. Consumers that already have an in-flight order won’t be ceased after 1st December, but the worry above is more around those who don’t yet have an in-flight order to be transferred.

Just to be clear, business lines aren’t so lucky, with Openreach’s latest private industry briefing making clear that disconnection will be the outcome: “If a CP fails to cease and/or migrate the services by the end of 30 November 2025, any live business assets which do not have an inflight order or have not been agreed as critical life impacting services, will be ceased by Openreach from the 1 December 2025“.

The key thing to remember here is that these are Openreach’s pilot exchanges, thus the issues being faced now are exactly the sort of ones that the operator will need to tackle in the future when they come to close thousands more exchanges. Suffice to say that the goal is to learn and identify these problems so they can refine the best solutions, before starting to exit many more exchanges in the very near future (here).