End of an Era as UK ISP Aquiss Switches Off Final ADSL Broadband Service

Shropshire-based independent UK ISP Aquiss has today announced that they’ve completed the company’s withdrawal from all legacy ADSL copper broadband services by switching off their final connection. The last ADSL line, which was first commissioned on 3rd September 2007, was disconnected on 3rd August 2026 as the customer migrated to a full fibre FTTP service.

For those who may have forgotten. Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) was one of the very first fixed broadband technologies to be deployed in the UK, which originally used an existing PSTN/POTS or twisted pair copper (sometimes also aluminium) “telephone” line to communicate and eventually offered download speeds of up to 20-24Mbps – there were various evolutions of ADSL, such as up to 8Mbps capable ADSL Max and up to 24Mbps capable ADSL2+.

The technology was a huge improvement over early narrowband dialup connections that struggled to deliver speed faster than 56Kbps on a single line, albeit one that also caused plenty of frustrations due to signal degradation over distance and other issues. Thankfully most consumers have long since moved onto more modern, faster and reliable broadband technologies (e.g. FTTC/VDSL2, FTTP/B and DOCSIS 3.1 / Hybrid Fibre Coax).

A spokesperson for Aquiss said:

“For over 20 years, ADSL played a vital role in connecting our customers. Today, with the switch-off of the very last ADSL service, that chapter has officially closed. While VDSL represented a step forward from ADSL, full fibre is the clear destination. We are supporting all remaining VDSL customers through a smooth transition to FTTP, delivering substantially faster and more reliable broadband for the future.”

Aquiss now similarly expects to conclude its remaining VDSL broadband services within the next year or so as it continues to migrate customers to modern and much more “future-proof” Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) connections. We should point out that some remote rural communities and a smattering of digitally disadvantaged urban areas are still stuck in ADSL-only areas (fixed lines), although even many of these can often get faster speeds via modern 4G/5G mobile broadband networks or Starlink’s LEO satellites.