End of the line as UK ISP Aquiss switch off final FTTC broadband service
Shropshire-based independent ISP Aquiss has today announced that they switched off their final Fibre-to-the-Cabinet (FTTC) based Openreach broadband service on 7th October 2026, which follows the withdrawal of all their legacy ADSL copper lines back in August 2026 (here). But the underlying technology of FTTC (VDSL2) still lives on via SOGEA packages.
Just to give a little context here. Aquiss are only talking about FTTC as a product from Openreach, not its core technology. The alternative SOGEA (Single Order Generic Ethernet Access) product still uses much of the same underlying VDSL2 broadband and physical infrastructure, but it’s been designed as a data-only solution that no longer requires a traditional phone line product (PSTN/WLR) to work. So if you want a phone service on SoGEA, it needs to be an IP-based (VoIP) style product from your ISP.
Aquiss originally piloted FTTC in 2009, with its first customer live service starting in 2010. In the years that followed, FTTC became the backbone of Aquiss’s superfast broadband offer, taking customers well beyond the limits of ADSL and supporting premises at a time when full fibre was still years away for most of the country.
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The majority of former FTTC customers have now been moved to full fibre FTTP lines. Where FTTP is not yet available, they have been migrated to SoGEA, with an “unrestricted path onto FTTP as soon as it can be provided“. But as above, Aquiss’ claim that this means they’re “no longer selling or operating either of the copper-based technologies that defined its earlier years” isn’t entirely accurate, as SoGEA still depends upon the same VDSL2 technology as before.
A spokesperson for Aquiss said:
“FTTC was a vital technology for so many of our customers. It was the step that made reliable superfast broadband a practical reality, long before full fibre reached the majority of premises. Switching off that last connection closes a chapter we are proud of, and leaves the network focused entirely on what comes next.”
The move suggests that the provider has now completed the migration of their customer base away from the older PSTN/WLR services, which means they don’t have to worry about the January 2027 deadline for related service closures (a handful actually remain as part of Ethernet backups, but they’re in the process of migration). Aquiss will continue to support their remaining SoGEA customers until they can all be upgraded to FTTP.
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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It’s amazing to see just how far technology (and people’s expectations) have progressed in twenty years. Just about the only thing that hasn’t changed is the price people are willing to pay for it!
I remember doing a Fibre TV link up in 1985 as part of a trial. Then THATCHER came along allowing OLOs to Cream off and fail the majority of their poor customers.
Privatisation was bad for the Telecommunications industry, put BT back by years.
I can still remember BT lying to me that my Home Highway ISDN line would be converted to ADSL for free when it became available. Beat dial-up though.
How about BT and others transfer for free everyone onto their FTTP packages.
They will/do
Be nice – but FTTP doesn’t exist everywhere yet. I hope that OR sorts out their problems with getting me on FTTC. I will be waiting from tomorrow onwards.
Zen did this for me, when FTTP became available in my area I was emailed proactively by a Zen rep and offered a transfer from 40/10 ADSL to an FTTP package at a lower monthly cost for a better speed. I was in contract, which they ended penalty-free, so it cost me nothing to move over.
@jet
they are. was on bt 30mb sogea, fftp was available in april, bt emailed to say i can transfer to full fibre 100mb for the same price, phoned them to order and they said we can do 150mb for the same price so ordered that instead. sky are also emailing customers to say free upgrade from fttc/sogea to fttp
It’s incredible how slow broadband in this country has been to progress. We are almost 30 years on since the standards for 1Gb fibre were ratified and provides are only just getting round to providing that speed.
BT/Openreach saddled the country with pointless ADSL and VDSL when they should have already been rolling out FTTP.
And even with FTTP they chose the ancient 2003 GPON standard instead of something more reasonable like the 2010 10GPON or the 2015 40GPON standards. Must BT/Openreach always be 20 years behind others?
We have had fibre technology for more than 30 years, but there are a number of conditions that must come together before it can be offered as a viable service. Other countries pushed ahead with fibre earlier, but those businesses tend to be either saddled with debt and/or operating in a market where there is little competition. Few of them have matched the pace of rollout that we have seen in the UK.
no doubt when openreach started the majority of the build they didnt think the take up and speed would be beyond 1gb be needed and when u have hundreds of thousands of pon cards to buy, its a tens of million pound decision but they are trialing 8.5gb+3.3 gb ( speed numbers from memory ) for the past 6 months or so and rolling it out to the south i believe in the next few months. see comment below posted in july
We haven’t installed GPON for a long time now. Standard is adtran 6330’s which are combo cards, we just have to change out the SFP to light the XGS up. We’ve been building with combo for about two years now, it’s all there ready to be lit up
@graham:
With regard to the product being focused on 1Gb, that was a decision based on market demand – i.e., the price point and the actual demand for fibre products. There would have been potential customers seeking higher bandwidths, but there were not necessarily the numbers to justify the investment.
Compare that with AltNets that deployed higher-speed connections but are having difficulty generating positive cash flow.
“So if you want a phone service on SoGEA, it needs to be an IP-based (VoIP) style product from your ISP” – or alternative third party supplier.
THATCHER was the .ain’t problem, pushing back and preventing the rollout of fibre into the network. Fibre was working in the network early 80s. That’s 40+ years.
Not this nonsense again. No sane government would spend tens of billions upgrading the entire network for a theoretical gain decades in the future.
@Winston Smith
What government money exactly?
In 1990, BT was a public company, with a minority government share-holding, when it made the commercial decision to deploy FTTP.
The Thatcher government effectively halted BT’s planned FTTP roll-out, therefore favouring the copper-coax CATV crew, by prohibiting BT’s use of the aforesaid planned fibre for “Entertainment purposes”, thus blowing the ROI out of the water.
Can’t help but wonder what things would look like if many of us had had FTTP before the turn of the century.
@David Shepherd:
Thatcher was not responsible for the decision, though that claim was made by other sources.
We had working fibre technology and a provisional architecture, but it was not ready, nor were the economics.
There were also considerable restrictions with BT at that time between the old and new schools that had to be played out.
Bit odd, FTTC still exists and people still need it.
GEA-FTTC is an adjunct to a WLR3 analogue circuit.
Since WLR3 (analogue) dies on 31st January 2027, FTTC dies with it too.
The replacement service is, as Mark reminds us in his above article, SoGEA +/- VoIP.
So no, not at all odd.
my dad lives in a place where they have half FTTC half FTTP. I sure hope BT upgrade him or he is out of luck end of Jan
The majority of former FTTC customers have now been moved to full fibre FTTP lines. Where FTTP is not yet available, they have been migrated to SoGEA,
So FTTC then…. basically talking out of their backside.
I suspect that the actual point that Aquiss are trying to make here is that they have now completed their preparations, for the PSTN/ISDN closure, by ceasing the last of their WLR3 analogue circuits, by migrating their remaining GEA-FTTC connections to SoGEA or GEA-FTTP.
Thus are the perils of imprecise language, as used by marketing “professionals”.
Yes, it is rather hilarious actually.
Do Aquiss sell SoADSL circuits when nothing else is available?
Or are those folks left out in the cold?
The village in which I used to live has just over 400 homes & businesses, there is a Huawei VDSL2 rDSLAM cabinet, but that has only 288 line ports of course, and has been at capacity with a waiting list for nearly a decade now.
Well done! However, they earned a minus mark for suggesting they no longer have any customers on FTTC. 🙂
FTTC replaced SoGEA 80/20 (for those who haven’t got FTTP available yet) If Aquiss say NO, look elsewhere, plenty of other ISPs still offering SoGEA!
Who’s question are you trying to answering Max?
You say: “FTTC replaced SoGEA …”
Are you sure you’ve got that the right way around?
In any case, Aquiss are more than happy to supply a SoGEA service, where that’s the best option available.
*answer
Oooops!
And there’s me implicitly criticising Max’s grammar!
Well done Aquiss, getting the job done well ahead of the deadline.