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.
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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.
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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.
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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).
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.
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Openreach should inform Customers
that they need to have an Appointment
to have their Cables changed
and keep Customers with what they have now
In most cases, if not all, Openreach does not know who these customers are nor if they have specific needs.
Part of the problem is that there is no obligation placed on care providers to ensure they take the necessary actions. Until this is addressed the CSPs will be left with these stragglers.
Maybe a recorded message played in when an outgoing call connects (best not interrupt dialing tones or ringing tones that alarm systems may need to detect) saying “This line is due to terminate, please contact your provider” would help both the user or recipient of the call take action.
Unfortunately that would still not help a user that only gets incoming calls but playing it there could be more open to abuse.
I agree with you
Would that make any difference if there is a technical or procedural reason why the line has not already been migrated?
I would go further and for voice lines have the phone ring with a recorded message. The closer you get to the cut off date the more frequently the calls so in the end they come several times a day. Basically but the customer to death. Working in IT when we need to get users to do something I have found it to be a winning strategy
Something like 40% of phone lines have no telephone plugged in and exist only for older versions of broadband that couldn’t be sold naked. On top of that, not all voice services are provided by an arm of BT, some providers have their own platforms.
Voice is only one small part of the set of services delivered from a telephone exchange in 2025 – recorded messages are not the answer.
I suppose they can’t just put a handset on the line and call them up to explain the situation?
They are not Openreach customers, nor can Openreach advise or sell on behalf of the customer CP. Not all CPs provide the same services, some do not sell voice services at all. It is solely down to the CP to make contact with the end customers.
Openreach are not allowed to have direct contact with end users (apart from an engineer at your door) due to neutrality rules.
What happens to the 4,600 exchanges? Will they be sold or the buildings will be leased to others?
A good number of them, if not all by now, have been sold. BT/Openreach leases access and has deadlines to vacate the properties, thus the urgency together started on the first 100 or so exchanges in phase 1.
There is information about which exchanges are to be shut down on the Openreach site.
They were sold a couple of decades ago and leased back. They’re mainly in a poor state of repair and often full of asbestos. Because of the characteristics of copper lines they are always central to the locations they serve, so prime sites for developers.
Some of the non-standard building types are suited to re-purposing as flats, shops or offices, but the standard types will pretty much be demolished as soon as the lights are turned off. The standard types were a set of templates that could be planned and built rapidly as the telephone network grew hugely from the end of the 1960s, they were cost effective and space efficient, but not built to last 100 years.
My view is that ISPs should receive the same message for their consumer customers as the one for business customers. That is a definitive cease of service. People will not act unless given an ultimatum.
OR has product solutions for all scenarios if landlines need to be maintained for now.
What is important is that OR arrange for sufficient resource to support those requiring an immediate response on the day. OR could do that by staggering the actual cut-off date across the affected customers on that exchange.
Openreach has gone through most of that already. The cut-off dates are here now and Openreach cannot keep postponing the shutdown.
Should do a public awareness campaign in the affected areas by leaflets with the termination date order and say have to contact their provider otherwise their service will be disconnected and no longer work by the given date
It is not Openreach’s responsibility. That falls to the service providers.
If it’s not Openreach’s responsibility why have they made it their problem? This is solely a commercial decision of Openreach, if they fail to address it and it causes them to suffer bad publicity or lose customers, then at the very least the current management will have to answer to the shareholders.
@Blue Shirt Guy:
It is not. purely a commercial decision.
Openreach has already gone through the process of engagement with CSPs and care providers.
It needs to be a firm end dater and not just an advisory without that the end date will just keep drifting and push op costs for end users
It is a firm end date with exceptions made for specific considerations. The firm end dates are now here.
Unfortunately, there are a lot of retail customers out there who will ignore letters as they are “not interested” or “can’t be bothered”.
The only way to get these customers attention is to hit them with price hikes, until they select a new product or identify as a vulnerable user (to hopefully be transferred to an appropriate product).
That’s What Openreach are doing from April next year, with two more price increases as the year goes on. The ISP’s will no doubt have to pass this on to the customer. I believe its 20%, 20% and 40%. When passed on to the customer, these sort of increases should attract most peoples attention.
It is Openreach and the CSPs that are driving the migration, not end customers.
The price increases are aimed at the CSPs that still have services provided on Openreach infrastructure that is within the scope of the shutdown program.
Some of us that live in rural properties served by old copper cables would love to go onto fast fibre but open reach says it’s too expensive to replace the existing copper cables for just one property?
If you can already get FTTC services (up to 80Mbps) then you won’t be affected by exchange closures anyway, as these cabinets are connected directly to an exchange that they will keep.
Otherwise you’ll either get an FTTP upgrade eventually, before your exchange closes, or you’ll be offered something like BT’s version of Starlink (recently announced).
Russell (10:43), regular readers here will know that Openreach’s plans for closing exchanges, and its plans for replacing copper with fibre, and plans for PSTN phone lines are all related, but happening at different times and at different paces depending on location. So this article isn’t talking about exactly the same things as you’re asking.
If you’re focussed on broadband, then check out Openreach’s published (but often a little vague) plans for full fibre in your area, which are striding along and should eventually cover almost everyone, even in all but the furthest-flung rural not-spots. And you can see if there is a community scheme like Openreach Connect My Community which might be able to chivvy plans along. When a community plan comes together, everyone wins. (The focus has somewhat moved away from community ’pledge’ schemes with BDUK’s latest Project Gigabit contracts, but they still exist for many areas.) Register on either (or both) to receive updates (and no spam).
For the few places where full fibre is off the cards entirely, the existing copper will still be around (and maintained) for many years yet, reconfigured for digital-only services including the “superfast” cabinet-based services (‘up to 80mbps’) and also offering less-popular basic rate services suitable for nothing but digital voice.
When local exchanges close, that puts the oldest ADSL (from sub-megabit up to 8 mbps) out of the running and that includes providers like TalkTalk who are otherwise working to different deadlines. Most of these will already have been able to change to some sort of nearer-by cabinet-based service, even if it’s pretty basic.
Can someone explain to me like I’m 7 years old why Openreach can’t just technically forcibly migrate remaining users to cabinet based SOTAP for Analogue, standard FTTC/VDSL or SOGEA (informing the relevant supplier that they will be doing so, with a couple of weeks of notice). Customer gets a postcard through the door 3 weeks prior, that they will have a couple of hours of outage on a specific date. Some will complain to their supplier, and the very act of complaining will create a call to action to reschedule creating a proper service order for a new service back to Openreach,
Should not practically affect service supplied or billing, although the supplier would need to update their records.
Yes some customers might get a lit but disabled/unbilled broadband or landline but that’s a secondary problem to tackle in a slow time later.
Because SOTAP is just basic broadband and still requires a router fitting at the customers premises to plug the phone into.
They also do not know who are holding off due to incompatible hardware that requires working PSTN, so even if they ran a VoIP service directly over the customers analog line (making it invisible to the customer), it would never have been 100% PSTN compatible so still have the same problem.
“SOTAP for analogue” refers to a different product. It is used by the BT Group as the basis for their “pre digital phone line” where the line is moved from legacy PSTN equipment to a VoIP media gateway in the same exchange. Intended for customers who do not have broadband and cannot yet be moved to Digital Voice (consumer) or Cloud Voice (business).
This really can be done without the customer’s co-operation as it looks and feels like the PSTN service. It is identical to the way the LLU firms have provided “analogue” lines for decades.
Note, I am aware that VoIP based analogue may have some compatibility issues with certain automated equipment in the customer premises: some security pendants, various types of alarm dialler, lift emergency lines, fax machines, maybe satellite set top boxes, etc.
But it can’t be beyond the wits of Openreach to develop some sort of box to put in the street cabinets mitigate this issue and facilitate migration, if SOTAP for Analogue can’t currently cover all the potential use cases. After all a voice call today eventually converts to digital equivalent for onwards transmission over the trunks in the exchange.
The issue is different. The core network has been digital for decades. This is a move to IP Voice and the codecs used don’t work with modem tones. Anything that uses a modem won’t work unless it’s very slow and you’re very lucky. This isn’t a UK problem, it’s an integral part of how VoIP works. Moving where the encoding happens doesn’t alter that basic truth.
There are some ways around it but none that work at the price someone wanting an analogue phone line will be willing to pay.
Quicker and earlier exit of the exchange should provide enough of a business case to fund a street cabinet version of SOTAP for Analogue or something similar that can handle legacy analogue modems and diallers. Customer should not be asked to pay, at least not for an initial couple of years (pending a specific resolution on the customers side).
The resolution could then be done at some leisure.
I appreciate that local street cabinet capacity for extra equipment could be an issue but it could be addressed by installing some street cabinets next to/near to the exchange that is being exited to hold any “transitional” equipment, allowing the exchange building to be exited in terms of the lease.
Someone once said what the SOTAP kit was. Nokia?
CPs will end up physically visiting the ends of circuits that haven’t been ceased and if no-one is home leaving a physical notice – it is the only way.
This started a long time ago – https://www.techradar.com/news/openreach-signals-start-of-switch-from-analogue-to-digital-phone-lines
This issue has to be addressed otherwise BT will have a huge problem. If people after adequate notice do not migrate then they will have to be just cut off
think i,ll hang on, i prefer a line that actually works at home when i lose the power….. thia no power no nothing situation would have NEVER been allowed 25 years ago. its NOT Progress its Rubbish! Shame on you openreach! , hope your never alone dark and without electric as youll have NO TELEPHONE!!!!