Openreach List Next 46 UK Areas for Copper to FTTP Switch – Tranche 15
Openreach (BT) has published the next round of 46 exchanges under Tranche 15 of their “FTTP Priority Exchange Stop Sell” programme, which reflects locations where over 75% of premises are able to get full fibre and can thus stop selling copper based phone and broadband products (i.e. FTTP is left as the only available product).
At present, there are two schemes for moving away from old copper lines and services, which can sometimes 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 on both copper and full fibre products (i.e. ISPs are introducing digital voice / VoIP services). The national “stop sell” on analogue phone services began on 5th September 2023 (here).
The second “FTTP Priority Exchange” project involves the ongoing rollout of gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) lines – using light signals via optical fibre instead of electrical signals via slow copper lines. Only after this second project has largely completed (75%+ FTTP coverage) in an exchange area can you really start to completely switch-off copper-based products, but that’s a much longer process as you have to allow time for customer migrations.
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Between the scrapping of analogue phone services, 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). Naturally, premises that can’t yet get FTTP will continue to be served by copper-based broadband products.
46 New Exchange Locations (Tranche 15)
The migration process away from the legacy services 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 46 exchanges announced today – reflecting 344,931 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 920 (up from 874) – covering a total of around 8.5 million premises (or 7m premises actively under stop sell or notified). The “stop sell” in the Tranche 15 areas will be introduced from 17th February 2025.
The operator also has a Stop Sells Page on their website, which usually makes it easy to see all of the planned changes, but for the last few months the download link for their latest Tranches has adopted the .mht (web archive) format that doesn’t load in any of the web browsers we’ve tried. We’ve highlighted this to Openreach before, although the issue remains, and so we had to get the latest list below via more unofficial channels.
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ISPreview intend to add some more details to this page later this morning, once Openreach gets around to putting out an official announcement. Otherwise, the following list is tentative, so changes and delays will occur (exchanges are sometimes shifted around into different tranches).
List of 46 Stop Sell Exchanges (Tranche 15)
| Exchange Name | Exchange Location |
| Rawcliffe | Rawcliffe |
| Aberaeron | Aberaeron |
| Badminton | Acton Turville |
| Baillies Mills | Lisburn |
| Balmaha | Drymen |
| Berkswell | Balsall Common |
| Brightling | Battle |
| Broughshane | Ballymena |
| Bury | Amberley |
| Chelmsford | Chelmsford |
| Chingford | Greater London – Waltham Forest |
| Crossgar | Downpatrick |
| Cupar | Cupar |
| Ettrick Valley | Ettrickbridge |
| Evesham | Evesham |
| Fareham | Fareham |
| Gillingham | Gillingham (Kent) |
| Graffham | Graffham |
| Great Harwood | Great Harwood |
| Hanley Swan | Hanley Swan |
| Healing | Grimsby |
| Heswall | Heswall |
| Hinckley | Hinckley |
| Ingrebourne | Greater London – Havering |
| Kells | Ballymena |
| Kimberley | Kimberley |
| Kingsbridge | Kingsbridge |
| Kirby Muxloe | Leicester |
| Leigh On Sea | Southend-on-Sea |
| Lismore | Achnacroish |
| Livingston Station | Livingston |
| Maldon | Maldon |
| Malpas | Malpas |
| Martinstown | Martinstown |
| Owslebury | Owslebury |
| Platt Bridge | Greater Manchester – Wigan |
| Rotherby | Frisby on the Wreake |
| Roxburgh | Roxburgh |
| Saint Barnabas | Leicester |
| Seaforde | Downpatrick |
| Sharrow | Sheffield |
| Shurdington | Shurdington |
| Stonehaven | Stonehaven |
| Stoneyford | Lisburn |
| Strangford | Downpatrick |
| Trumpington | Cambridge |
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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Is there a full list of stop sell exchanges online anywhere? Sure my local one was listed in an article before but not seen it and wanted to check if anyone can point me into the right direction.
The Stop Sells page is linked in the article above, if you read it all, but until Openreach fix the download link on their site then you won’t be able to see the full list with the latest dates for past Tranches. I have covered all of the tranches on this site in our news, but as I say, tranches can change and so the dates for some locations may have changed over the past year or so.
Stop sell refers to the withdrawal of exchange copper products. There is now national stop sell although there are exceptions. Only SOGEA and SOTAP (+ new analogue variant).
The OR FTTP announcements of FTTP is a guide. It will take time for areas to be completed. Check https://www.openreach.com/fibre-broadband/where-when-building-ultrafast-full-fibre-broadband
To check FTTP status and RFS I would recommending using either EE or Sky web sites and see what products are being offered as that will be a more accurate view of Post Code and premise. Although some ordering FTTP are still suffering from database issues. It is premise specific whether FTTP will actually be available.
https://labs.thinkbroadband.com/local/postcode-search will give you info on your local exchange.
Waiting on the list from Openreach, since dates do change
> Stop sell refers to the withdrawal of exchange copper products. There is now national stop sell
No no no no. You are mixing up two different things.
There is national stop sell for the *PSTN* (analogue voice services, aka “dialtone”). This will be completely turned off in December 2025.
But stop sell for copper is done area by area: it is only for those areas where FTTP coverage has reached 75% (or is planned to reach that shortly). It also only applies only to properties which have FTTP available. If FTTP is not available to you, then you can continue to order copper-based broadband products indefinitely.
@NE555 What I don’t get is why they don’t just withdraw copper nationwide for those who have the option of FTTP. That’s it you have full fibre available. Quite why it needs to be done on an exchange level is completely baffling.
Just think how long it would take for Openreach (who aren’t the ISP) to install FTTP to every customer to whom it’s available but is currently on a copper service.
Nice to see a few more NI Exchanges being announced also
Of course the DEI in action
Considering how many exchange area’s are now considered complete by Openreach there does seem a massive lag before the copper switch off is announced. I have also seen some that have been announced then pulled in a following copper switch off update.
Still not here, but then they have to give 12 months notice and also the area have to be 75% FTTP and I don’t think we are even near that yet, not with Openreach anyway. Still, parts of one of the larger estates can’t get OR FTTP.
Has to be 75% at time of stop sell, not at time of announcement.
Farnham, Surrey, wealthy commuter town, still ignored whilst my FTTC speeds gradually slow.
FW Networks have coverage in Farnham, Openreach and Virgin Media are building.
Oh well as long as you’re wealthy, you must be more important!
And the burning question is . . . . will Snowy reach Tinn Tinn, hiding in the roadside cabinet, before the sparkly devil of alt net providers beat him to it?
Tune in to next week’s compelling episode.
.mht file format, should be openable in Internet explorer 11 or earlier.
In theory Edge on Windows10/11 in Internet explorer compatibility mode should be able to open it too.
It doesn’t work, you just get a blank page.
So far the only thing I’ve found which will render the data is https://products.aspose.app/cells/viewer/mht – it is almost as though this particular .mht file contains Excel-specific data and doesn’t render at all in Edge / IE or other browsers.
The instilation is a pain in the neck suffered in Tewkesbury 2023
My exchange was getting upgraded to FTTP “within the next 12 months” about 3 years ago.
Openreach are total jokers. They’ll be going back to the government for more money soon.
Same here, 2020 start in 12 months. Then nothing.
They are really dragging their feet around here.
I’d love to get over 30Mb, it’s not enough in this day and age.
We don’t have an altnet here or VM so unfortunately I’m at the hands of OR abusing their monopoly.
People who have faster competition get all the upgrades, people with no choice get nothing until the very last minute.
Im expecting December 2026 at this rate, only 6 years after being announced.
At least you weren’t told that you weren’t in the build plan after you’d already placed an order and arranged an installation date.
Mine gets installed tomorrow.
I’m out in so remote that they needed subtended headends to deliver the service.
Deliver it they did though.
Still no word of fibre to the premises at bt35….we continue to pay nearly £50 for 14 to 17mbps…fibrus has got the jump on bt/openreach/??in this area.
All I can say is please help me have my connection for my breathing that is connected at all times please don’t disconnect ❤️❤️❤️❤️
If you’ve got a health device connected to your current copper connection and are worried the upgrade to fibre will affect it, you need to let your service provider know. They shouldn’t switch you until they’re satisfied it will work (or that you’ve upgraded to a device that will work). That said, there’s a new government charter to protect the ‘vulnerable’ and as a result I think Openreach won’t move you from copper to fibre anyway, if you have any type of Telecare device (at the moment)
I would love to have full fibre but openreach keep cancelling my connection day and then I have to go through having to cancel the paperwork and filling it all in again. Bet they’ll bombard me with text when it suits them to come on fit it.
Would be good if they finished all the areas that were previously planned before raising hopes of all these new areas. Work started in my area 2020, still not complete. As someone else stated, they seem to be prioritising areas that can get access to alt.net providers and already have very good FTTC, leaving those at the mercy of OR until the very end or even cancelling installs!
You are correct the rollout is a joke Most of my entire area can get by FTTP but mine. is still stuck on FTTC thankfully I have virgin media here at 1gbps but still, I want full fibre and I’m getting super impatient they think they are building from now to 2026 if the world makes it to them think it’s sad how they start areas then leave and make outher wait full areas should be done befor moving on !!!