Openreach name next 112 UK areas for copper to full fibre switch – tranche 26

Openreach (BT) has today published the next batch of 112 exchanges (Tranche 26) under their “FTTP Priority Exchange” stop sell scheme – reflecting a further 619,724 premises. This reflects areas where over 75% of premises are able to get full fibre lines and will thus stop selling copper based legacy phone and broadband products (i.e. FTTP becomes the only product option, where available).

Currently, there are two schemes for moving away from old copper lines and services, which can sometimes cross over a bit. The first starts with the gradual migration of traditional legacy voice (PSTN / WLR) services to digital all-IP technologies (e.g. SOGEA), which is due to complete by 31st January 2027 and is occurring on both copper and full fibre products (i.e. ISPs are introducing digital voice / VoIP services). The national “stop sell” on legacy phone services began on 5th September 2023 (here).

The second “FTTP Priority Exchange” programme 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 programme has largely completed (75%+ FTTP coverage) in an exchange area can you really start to completely switch-off copper-based products, which will come later as you have to allow lots of time for natural customer migrations.

Between the scrapping of legacy phone services, the full fibre rollout and the gradual switch away from copper lines themselves, this process will take several years in each area to complete, and the pace will vary (i.e. some areas have better coverage of Openreach’s full fibre lines than others). Just to be clear, though, premises that can’t yet get FTTP will continue to be served by copper-based broadband products.

112 New Exchange Locations (Tranche 26)

In this programme, the migration process away from legacy services starts with a “no move back” policy (i.e. no going back to copper) for premises connected with FTTP, 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, although edge-case conflicts may still occur due to rare quirks of network availability. The 112 exchanges being confirmed today will take the total number of notified exchange stop sells, including trial sites, to 2,325. The stop sell in today’s list will become effective in roughly 12-months time on 4th November 2027.

James Lilley, Openreach’s Managed Customer Migrations Director, said:

“Our stop sell programme is a key step in accelerating the UK’s move to a full fibre future. As ageing copper networks become less able to meet modern communications needs, our focus is on helping customers move to faster, more reliable digital technologies.”

Retiring legacy copper services where fibre is widely available will support the industry-wide migration to modern networks, reduce the cost and complexity of maintaining old and new infrastructure side by side, and help ensure customers are ready for the closure of the PSTN in less than four months’ time, when everyone will need a digital phone service.”

The total number of UK premises covered by Openreach’s stop-sell rules is now around 16.4 million (up by 619,724 premises in this update).

The operator also has a Stop Sells Page on their website, which makes it easy to see all the planned changes. Otherwise, the following list is tentative, so changes and delays will occur (exchanges can and are often shifted around into different tranches).

112 Stop Sell Exchanges in Tranche 26