BT Get £105m for First Sale of Old UK Copper Telecoms Cables
The BT Group has confirmed that they recently received their first upfront prepayment of £105m for the sale of leftover copper cables. The cables had been extracted from their legacy UK exchange network (broadband and phone lines) as part of the operator’s gradual move to replace those with newer fibre optic lines.
Just to recap. The group’s £15bn investment to roll-out Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) based gigabit broadband ISP lines across the UK, which is being handled by Openreach, will ultimately be followed by the extraction of their older copper lines. BT has previously said that it is “confident” of being able to “recover” an estimated 200,000 tonnes of copper from their old legacy network through the 2030s.
The first major step in this is the operator’s national Exchange Clearance Operation (ECO) programme, which is a BT Group initiative rather than an Openreach one. The copper being recovered will be from BT kit in the exchange, although it all feeds into the same overall task.
Advertisement
BT’s most recent Annual Report (June 2024) noted how the operator “continued recovering old or end-of-life network equipment to reuse or recycle, much of which was through our Exchange Clearance Operations programme. This year, we recovered 3,300 tonnes. We also agreed a deal with a leading bank and global recycler EMR to support the extraction and recycling of copper cable from our network until 2028.”
According to The Guardian, BT has now received £105m after entering into a forward agreement to sell copper granules created from the operator’s surplus copper cables, and more such payments will follow as the progress continues.
However, the newspaper states that 3,300 tonnes of copper was extracted over the last year, which seems likely to be incorrect as they appear to have forgotten that this figure includes other exchange kit (e.g. the recycling of heavy lead batteries etc.). Back in June 2023 BT were forecasting that they’d extract 200 tonnes of copper by the end of that year (here).
A spokesperson for Openreach said:
“As we look to recover and reuse scarce resources like copper in line with our commitment to sustainability, we estimate that as we replace old copper networks with fibre, we’ll be able to recover up to 200,000 tonnes of copper through the 2030s – in line with customer migrations.”
Estimates suggest that the group’s copper cables could, once fully extracted and sold, be worth up to £1.5bn by completion. But this does depend upon the quality of the copper, as well as ever-fluctuating market prices and additional costs (the high cost of extraction, middlemen fees etc.). After costs, BT may well get back a lot less than £1.5bn, although they’ll eventually also see some savings from a reduction in copper theft and related repairs from their network (fibre optic lines have no value to criminals).
Advertisement
Finally, it’s worth noting that Openreach will eventually only need around 1,000 “fibre” (FTTC, FTTP etc.) exchanges – Openreach Handover Points (OHPs) – and thus the operator is currently in the early stages of preparing for their Exchange Exit Programme, which will close around 4,600 UK exchanges that would not make economic sense to maintain. The first 100+ exchanges are due to close by 2030, but the rest will follow through the early 2030s.
The withdrawal of copper lines and exchanges is a slow process because it will take time to gradually migrate consumers and businesses over to the new network, which is a hugely complex process – one that requires existing customers to be supported (often for a few years after FTTP has arrived) so as to avoid disruptions in vital services.
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, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
« Survey Claims UK Internet Users Leave Broadband Routers Open to Hackers
I would think there’s a lot of legacy 2002/2003 coax interconnecting DDF’s within the Exchanges, which should also be easily recoverable; Assuming it’s still there.
I imagine that would’ve been replaced by fibre long ago?
My Brother-In-Law was involved in a project to remove redundant copper in some exchanges a few years ago (before FTTP), apparently the cable trays were riddled with redundant cables and it was quite a mess.
Mark – I think you mean 200,000 tonnes rather than 200?
Nope, that’s why I remarked on the difference. BT said this last year:
“This year alone, the programme will extract over 200 tonnes of copper cable, (equivalent to the weight of over 140 Ford Focus cars), will see over 2,000 tonnes of lead batteries recycled and will generate £4m with these combined activities in addition to recycling & resale of redundant network equipment.”
200,000 is the overall total they expect to be able to extract, rather than what has been done so far.
So, with this “Windfall” of billions across the entire project how much will they REDUCE the supply costs to the consumer ?
Likely this money will pay off shareholders first and the pepole paying the businesses wages, Joe Public, and businesses won’t see a damn penny
If you’re a rural customer don’t expect much assistance or installation if you’re more than a stones throw from a road carrying the optic stuff because Openreach won’t install anything citing “Too expensive” to run more than 350m from any box, let alone any attempt at FTTP !
Quick to boast about expansion… but in reality failing miserably
This is lies Rob.
upto 1.5billion which could be a lot less ( especially if the price of copper drops ) and its over ( estimated from whats written ) the next 10 years. prob all be ploughed back into the up to 15billion its costing to upgrade to full fibre
Do you have any evidence to support this comment ? As there has been many times I have used 2 x 350m cables to get from a CBT on the main road, spliced at the 350m point and the remainder brought to the premises.
FTTP connections in rural areas can be a challenge and there may be some delays in providing service, but it does get done once the ball starts rolling after the first appointment.
The options normally presented are:
Pay the ECC’s to replace/repair the ducting by a civils teams that dig and install ducting daily and know what they’re doing (a bit like how you would pay a reputable tradesman/woman to ensure that a job is done correctly)
Have Openreach supply new ducting, free of charge, and the user then installs it/arranges it’s installation at their own expense, which may be more cost effective
Take an overhead solution – this is normally the cheapest, Openreach might be kind and not charge for this
Some CPs can be apprehensive about accepting and paying ECCs and THEY often cancel the order as they object, before consulting their customer over whether they would be willing to pay it.
Rural customers tend to be typically tuned into the fact that moving into that type of area can present some challenges and that delivering services to their address isn’t as straightforward as elsewhere.
I have found open reach engineers most amicable when they arrive to site and find a fresh length of copper to the local pop / dp.
I assume they would feel similarly if this was a length of fibre.
The issue is this cannot be done officially.
It must be discovered at the first survey.
Many an ADSL to exchange order has become a fttc install to local DP due to this after two strange men we’re seen tidying BT cables up on a Saturday and Sunday in my local area.
I will note on every occasion it’s met with a this isn’t our cable it’s far to neat, to which I challenge but you can use it I assume …
My Dad’s BT connection has just this week been upgraded to FTTP. He lives at what could be regarded as a cluster of 5 premises in a rural area. closest ‘neighbour’ 50mtrs away furthest 250mtrs distant. Fibre ‘cable’ Mole ploughed in (I was surprised) to the pole at his gateway with the other properties fed O/H from the pole. Interestingly the Fibre cable comes from the opposite to the exchange (UAX, now a RSS) we have connected to since the 1960’s. Those five properties have FTTP from BT/OR before the village has.
So the £105m isn’t related to a completed sale which involved all the copper moving?
The title was a little bit confusing for me.
“they’ll eventually also see some savings from a reduction in copper theft and related repairs from their network”
Only if they pull out all the copper from their existing underground ducts. They’d have to be able to do so without risking damage to the fibre cables running alongside them: maybe if it’s all in subducts it might be possible.
Openreach (and VM) are keen to remove all legacy cables, some of which are blocking their ducts. I think most will get removed over the next few decades (so a huge job) with the remainder which are too difficult or expensive to remove being left in place.
Most of the copper cables that will be extracted are large E side cables that are up to 4800 pairs in a single cable. These cables are generally so big you will only get one per duct bore so unlikely to cause too much damage to fibre. These routes generally have fibre in sub duct as well due to the fact these will be main routes. The local network with smaller copper cables is less likely to be cost effective and most of these routes are where they will share duct space with fibre cables that are not sub-ducted.
The big problem will be removing the grease from the grease filled distribution cables. They will start with the dry exchange to cabinet cables first as they are easily recycled.
The basement is going to be the richest vein of copper to mine in an exchange. I see BT were advertising jobs recently for frames compression engineers and managers, the compression works both ways from the frame.