Openreach List Next 18 UK Areas for Copper Phone to Fibre Switch – Tranche 13
Openreach (BT) has confirmed the next batch of 18 UK exchanges under ‘Tranche 13‘ of their project to move away from older copper-based analogue phone (PSTN / WLR etc.) services and on to a new all-IP network, which in this case will also occur once over 75% of premises in each area are able to get FTTP broadband.
At present, there are two programmes for moving away from old copper lines and services, which can sometimes criss-cross each other. The first starts with the gradual migration of traditional analogue voice (PSTN) services to digital all-IP technologies (e.g. SOGEA), which is due to complete by December 2025 and is occurring for both copper and full fibre products (i.e. ISPs are introducing digital voice / VoIP style services).
The second programme involves the ongoing rollout of gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband infrastructure – using light signals via optical fibre instead of electrical signals via slow copper lines. Only after this second stage has largely completed in an exchange area can you really start to completely switch-off copper lines, but that’s a much longer process as you have to allow a few years for user migration.
Take note that the process for fully moving away from copper to “fibre” begins once 75% of premises in an exchange are able to receive ultrafast broadband connectivity. The news today is thus focused on this second phase (i.e. “FTTP Priority Exchange” areas).
Between the full fibre rollout and the gradual switch away from copper lines, this process will take several years in each area to complete, and the pace will vary (i.e. some areas have better FTTP coverage than others). We should add that Openreach will stop selling all analogue phone lines to new customers by 5th September 2023 (this has no impact on IP / SOGEA based copper or full fibre broadband lines).
18 New Exchange Locations (Tranche 13)
The migration process away from the legacy services usually starts with a “no move back” policy (i.e. no going back to copper) for premises connected with fibre, which is followed by a “stop-sell” of copper services to new customers (12-months of notice is given before this starts and that is what today’s list represents). This stage is then followed by a final “withdrawal” phase, but that comes later. The stop sell is applied at premises level, so it shouldn’t impact you if you don’t yet have access to FTTP (edge-case conflicts may still occur due to rare quirks of network availability).
The 18 exchanges announced today – covering 161,000 premises – takes the total number of exchange upgrades that have already been notified as part of the aforementioned process (including trial exchanges), or which are actively under “stop sell“, to 846 – covering a total of around 8 million premises. The “stop sell” in the Tranche 14 areas will be introduced from 16th August 2024.
The operator has also added a Stop Sells Page to their website, which makes it easy to see all the changes. Remember, the following list is tentative, so changes and delays will occur (exchanges can are often shifted around into different tranches).
18 Stop Sell Exchanges in Tranche 13
| Exchange Name | Exchange Location |
| Accrington | Accrington |
| Adel | Leeds |
| Amman Valley | Gwaun-Cae-Gurwen |
| Armitage | Armitage |
| Askern | Askern |
| Batley | Batley |
| Crawfordjohn | Crawfordjohn |
| Downderry | Downderry |
| Elvanfoot | Crawford |
| Fordhouses | Wolverhampton |
| Haddenham | Haddenham (East Cambridgeshire |
| Harthill | Harthill |
| Heaton Moor | Greater Manchester – Stockport |
| Heywood | Greater Manchester – Rochdale |
| Lamington | Broughton (South Lanarkshire) |
| Orsett | Grays |
| Uckfield | Uckfield |
| Wellingborough | Wellingborough |
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook and Linkedin.
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“The second programme involves the ongoing rollout of gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband infrastructure – using light signals via optical fibre instead of electrical signals via slow copper lines. Only after this second stage has largely completed in an exchange area can you really start to completely switch-off copper lines, but that’s a much longer process as you have to allow a few years for user migration.”
Not true – a copper exchange could be switched off if 100% of homes were on FTTC
Does the 50v come from the FTTC cabinet?
SoGEA lines don’t have voltage on them – at least the ones I have access to do not. There is no requirement to maintain the E-side for a SoGEA line except for test purposes or if someone wants to migrate back to PSTN (while that’s still possible) or LLU, as I understand it.
That paragraph isn’t talking about exchanges, it’s talking about lines. The exchange closure programme is separate, but related (not part of this article). There are so many changes happening at once that it can get confusing.
100% FTTC is a purely hypothetical scenario. In the real world, most Openreach cabinets do not have enough FTTC capacity to serve all remaining analogue lines using FTTC.
is that necessary though? They’re probably already at the high water mark as it is, with people moving to FTTP either through openreach or through an alt net.
Businesses that have a pile of PSTN/ISDN lines will move to VoIP and perhaps using one of those lines as the bearer. Most people who have and still need a landline likely already have FTTC/P anyway. The FTTP rollout also frees up line cards that could be installed in cabinets that aren’t already full.
Openreach won’t want people using any sort of exchange based service where better services already exist. SOTAP and friends are for those who are still stuck on ADSL, not because they choose to stay on it.
@Ivor
“The FTTP rollout also frees up line cards that could be installed in cabinets that aren’t already full.”
It doesn’t but it does remove FTTC customers to free up space for anyone still on a full cabinet waiting list. The few ADSL only areas seem to have been the most targeted by FTTP deployment and most exchange only lines got a PCP/FTTC all in one cabinet a few years ago.
You are right that most ADSL customers are on it due to FTTC/FTTP unavailability rather than choice.
In places like mine, where there are three VDSL cabinets on one PCP, it absolutely does free up equipment for re-use. The FTTP rollout is essentially everywhere except the blocks of flats, and take up looks pretty good judging by the new boxes on people’s houses
They could likely remove two of those cabinets in the nearer term (good, as two out of the three are ECI garbage anyway) and consolidate all of the remaining users into one. Power savings, tax savings, wayleave savings, and likely a bit of a speed boost (I happen to have two lines, all identical except the DSLAM type – the Huawei gets the full 80/20 and the ECI struggles to get to 65)
Openreach seems to have a long way to go here, a fair bit still no openreach fibre.
I don’t envy them with the work they still need to do
My provider is forcing me to move to City fiber. I don’t want this as then they will have monopoly and charge more
I want ti stay with Openreach
I would change to another provider that uses the Openreach network so that I can switch provider easily in the future
It would seem to be more sensible to automatically move people to a digital line if they take up FTTP with the exception of if they have other services on a line that may currently be problematic if they were to have a digital line. I think Sky already automatically put people on a digital line if no other services on the line
It would seem to be more sensible to automatically move people to a digital line if they take up FTTP with the exception of if they have other services on a line that may currently be problematic if they were to have a digital line. I think Sky already automatically put people on a digital line if no other services on the line
People are already on a digital line if they switch to FTTP? They are also moving FTTC customers to digital voice as part of the WLR (Openreach’s voice product) withdrawal. FTTC cabinets only supply data, not traditional landlines.
The only services you can have now on copper lines are FTTC or voice (technically a LLU provider could do something else but none of them do) so all can be migrated to digital voice.
Alex… Last November I was migrated to FTTP. My PSTN line was migrated to digital voice last month.
So no… the swap to a digital line isn’t automatic if you have FTTP.
My understanding is that a new build with only FTTP will have digital voice on day1. A premises with a copper line that has FTTP installed will continue with a PSTN line until they are migrated.
A premises with only a copper line will be migrated to a digital line via FTTC even if they don’t have internet at some point.
I’ve happened across this sight in my attempts to make sense of this. As you all seem to know so much in such detail, can any of you explain what will happen to people like me. From our house we can see the full super fast broadband cabinet. It comes from an exchange in Warwickshire. We however are across a county divide, so there are no plans to join our phone up as, despite the Warwickshire code, we live in Worcestershire.