Digital infrastructure provider Openreach has announced a further 112 new exchange locations, covering than half a million new premises (554,918) across the UK, where the business plans to halt the sale of traditional copper-based phone and broadband services to encourage people to upgrade to new digital services over an ultrafast Full Fibre connection

The business is giving Communication Providers (CPs) such as Sky, BT, TalkTalk and Vodafone, that use its network, a year’s notice that it will no longer be selling legacy analogue products and services where Full Fibre becomes available to a majority (>75 per cent) of premises in these new exchange locations.

Stop Sell is triggered when a majority (75 per cent) of premises connected to a particular exchange can get ultrafast Full Fibre. Customers who then want to switch, upgrade or re-grade their broadband or phone service will have to take a new digital service over Openreach’s new Full Fibre network.

Customers in these exchanges not yet able to get Ultrafast Full Fibre at their premises won’t be impacted and can stay on their existing copper-based service until Full Fibre does become available.

By August (August 20th), ‘stop sell’ rules will have been activated in 1,572 exchanges across the UK – meaning around 15.4 million premises are under active Stop Sell – i.e., served by exchanges where Full Fibre is available to a majority of premises and copper products cannot be sold – equal to 57 per cent of Openreach’s total full fibre footprint (23.5 million THP).

James Lilley, Openreach’s Managed Customer Migrations Director, said: “Our stop sell programme is a vital step in accelerating the UK’s transition to a modern full fibre future. As copper’s ability to support modern communications declines, the immediate focus is getting people onto newer, future proofed technologies.”

“By phasing out legacy copper-based services in areas where fibre is now widely available, we’re ensuring customers and providers move onto faster, more reliable, digital infrastructure. This approach not only reduces the cost and complexity of having to maintain both old and new networks but also supports the industry-wide migration ahead of the legacy copper-based Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) now just six months away, by which time everyone will need a digital phone line.”

Tomas Novosad, founder of Full Fibre Checker, described Openreach continuing to expand its footprint as “genuinely positive news”, but suggested that the gap between a location being ‘reached’ and individual premises being able to order a full-fibre connection can still be months.

“Consumers in newly announced areas should check availability at postcode level rather than assuming they can switch immediately. The rollout data we track at Full Fibre Checker consistently shows that headline coverage figures outpace what’s actually live and orderable on the ground — and that distinction matters enormously for households making contract decisions right now,” he added.

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Categories: Articles, Broadband, FTTH, Telco

Tags: bt, Full fibre, Openreach