Openreach warn 35,000 customers in N.Ireland yet to migrate from old copper network
Network access provider Openreach (BT) has today warned people in Northern Ireland that 35,000 of their customers have yet to migrate from the old Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) and on to modern IP-based digital line alternatives, including some legacy broadband lines. The switch-off has been underway for several years, but the final deadline is now only months away.
Just to recap. The PSTN / WLR switch-off is currently due to reach its conclusion on 31st January 2027. As a result, broadband, phone, telecare providers, councils and consumers have been working to migrate everybody across (details). The main focus of this remains on the people who use vital home telecare systems (e.g. elderly, disabled – vulnerable users), which aren’t always compatible with newer IP-based digital phone services (telecare providers were slow to adapt). Unresponsive customers are also proving to be a challenge.
At present 1.2 million UK lines (inc. 350,000 business premises) have yet to be migrated (i.e. 15m have already been done). But as we’ve previously reported, consumer and business lines won’t face a hard disconnection on the deadline and there will be a temporary Emergency Voice Access (eVAC) solution for those who fail to migrate – a limited last-resort phone service designed to maintain access to essential calls.
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The eVAC solution will, where “technically possible“, also keep some linked broadband services running (i.e. legacy ADSL, FTTC/VDSL and G.fast lines). But eVAC lacks some key features and costs more than the old service, thus it’s wise for end-users to make the switch now, while the spare engineering resources and various discounts are still in place to help. Special solutions and dedicated engineer support also exists for telecare users.
Lauren McGaughey, Openreach NI Director, said:
“For many people, this change will simply mean moving their phone service from an old analogue connection to a modern digital one. But the important thing is to check what else might be connected to that line.
You might not think of your medical device, alarm, payment terminal, lift phone or CCTV system as being part of your telephone service, but some equipment can rely on an analogue connection to work. The good news is there is still time to check what you have and make any necessary changes before the deadline.
That’s why we’re encouraging businesses, organisations and households across Northern Ireland to check now, rather than waiting until the deadline. If you’re unsure whether you’re affected, speak to your communications provider and, where relevant, the company that supplies or maintains your equipment. They can advise you on the options available and any changes that may be needed.”
The main reason why there are so few customers in this boat across N.Ireland is because the country has long had a significant level of pre-existing full fibre broadband availability (currently 97%, which compares with 85% across the wider UK), thus many lines have long since already been migrated to modern broadband and phone services (usually via natural upgrades).
Just to be clear. Openreach are not removing the physical copper lines with this change (these are still being used for some of their modern digital alternatives), so they are only withdrawing their legacy / analogue phone and older broadband services that go over the top of that.
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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So if you havnt been upgraded to FF through public schemes such as Stratum and Gigabit nor through Openreach’s commercial roll-out, will you still be able to access broadband through FTTC or ADSL?
Yes. If your property can’t get Openreach FTTP then you will be able to get FTTC (where available) or ADSL. That applies in “stop sell” areas as well. ISPs that use both Openreach or an altnet might push altnet FTTP instead of a copper service if that is available.
Openreach aren’t yet decommissioning FTTC cabinets in any real scale. Exchange closure will affect ADSL availability but that’s not an immediate issue.
You will be told you have to upgrade. Myself and my sister were informed by Sky and BT you have to move to fibre. She is on adsl and whatever way they have done it she doesnt have to move until FTTP is available at her address, but if FTTP is available now you have to change. Or at least that is my interpretation of it.
Yes. As the article says: “Openreach are not removing the physical copper lines with this change (these are still being used for some of their modern digital alternatives)”
That means that SOGEA (= FTTC without WLR) will still be available for properties where FTTP is not available, and SOADSL for properties without either FTTP or SOGEA.
>> The main reason why there are so few customers in this boat across N.Ireland
Adjusting for population there are more unmigrated lines in Northern Ireland (1 per 55 people) than the UK as a whole (1 per 58 people). That’s my internet ‘well actually…’ for the day.
If you were to compare NI with each of the individual countries of the UK would NI still be leading?
My mate in Orpington was transferred to full fibre by OR, a year ago and told to plug his LL phone into the back of the EE Router – nothing. Re-plugged phone back into copper socket and worked fine since. I wonder what’s going to happen on the 31st Jan, copper connection stops and will the transfer to the EE Router magically start?
He won’t hold his breath!
PS He did contact EE at the time and they didn’t have a clue what he was talking about as the land line was working.
Was he explicitly told (eg via email) that he was being moved to Digital Home Phone, as EE calls it?
I received several emails on this, including one after installation (actually a few minutes after the EE hub first went online) that told me that it was time to plug the phone into the hub.
I think those figures suggest that Northern Ireland has an above-average number of end users still to be migrated.
It’s not all at the fault of the customer, the CPs can’t get their act together either. My 80 year old mum is a Plusnet customer that still has an analogue phone line along with FTTC/VDSL. Plusnet suddenly reached out to her in June with very little notice advising she’ll be migrated to EE with digital voice along with her broadband plan. She even got sent an EE router. Out of all the dates they picked for the transition, they picked a date that I was away on vacation and I called them to postpone as I wouldn’t be around to help my elderly mother switch the router and rejoin all the devices to Wifi. Ever since then they have forgotten about us despite numerous follow-up.
It’s more than 35,000 as Sky and TalkTalk have their own equipment in the Exchanges and in many cases are allowing their customers to remain as they are. Some customers are with these firms so they can avoid going Full Fibre and VOIP. This will probably change for TalkTalk consumers through time as they become more integrated into BT, although at this time they are being run as a competitor within the BT group.
Sky and TalkTalk don’t use the Openreach PSTN – as you have said, they use their own equipment – so they aren’t held to the 2027 deadline and don’t form part of this statistic.
Sky and TT can theoretically sell new copper analogue landlines in areas not yet covered by a stop sell, though in practice they don’t want to.
I would expect that BT will seamlessly move the remaining analogue landline customers over to the media gateways that support PDPL and EVAC, in the same way they’ve done for BT phone-only customers
Should have spent the last year doubling analogue line wholesale every month, would be no ‘no contact’ customers within the first quarter
By now, no analogue lines other than a careless rich person or two
By all means refund the extra after migration, job sorted