Openreach adds 46 exchanges to stop sell

The new exchanges will cover an additional 344,931 premises where Openreach is planning to stop selling legacy analogue services to encourage the adoption of new digital services over a full fibre connection.

The business is giving communication providers 12 months notification that it will no longer be selling copper-based products/services in these exchanges. This brings the total number of locations now notified for or already actively under ‘stop sell’ to 920 exchanges, covering around 8.5 million premises.

BT is switching off the existing copper-based network, the PSTN, by the end of December 2025 and everyone in the UK will need to have a digital phone line by that time. To help customers prepare, Openreach is stopping the sale of copper-based analogue services in exchange areas where a majority of premises have access to its full fibre network.

As Openreach rolls out its ultrafast full fibre network across the country it makes no sense to keep old technologies running. They are expensive, replacement parts are no longer being made and it won’t allow the business to push forward with its connectivity plans as quickly as it would like.

So when a majority (75 per cent) of premises connected to a particular exchange can get ultrafast full fibre customers won’t be able to buy Openreach’s old copper products. This only applies to anyone who’s signing up to a new contract, whether they’re switching, upgrading or re-grading their service.

Ideally those customers will get a new service delivered over Openreach’s brand new full fibre network, which is already available to more than 12.8 million homes and businesses nationwide. But, where that’s not yet available, customers can keep their existing copper product.

Over the next few years, Openreach will be upgrading just under 9 million remaining PSTN lines – including the now ageing traditional landline telephone service – to new digital ones.

The full list of exchanges added to stop sell is as follows: