Openreach to stop selling copper services in 137 more locations

Engineer with fibre cable

Openreach has announced a further 137 new exchange locations, covering a massive 854,000 premises 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) like BT, Sky, 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%) of premises in these new exchange locations.  

 Stop Sell is triggered when a majority (75%) 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 our 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 19, ‘stop sell’ rules will have been activated in 1041 exchanges across the UK – meaning 8.9 million premises will be under active Stop Sell – i.e. premises where Full Fibre is available to a majority of premises and copper products cannot be sold – equal to 46.4 per cent of Openreach’s total full fibre footprint.

 James Lilley, Openreach’s Managed Customer Migrations Manager, said: “The stop sell programme is a critical part of ensuring that the UK's communication infrastructure is ready to meet the demands of the future. Taking advantage of the progress of our Full Fibre build and encouraging people to upgrade where a majority can access our new network is the right thing to do as it makes no sense, both operationally and commercially, to keep the old copper network and our new fibre network running side-by-side. As copper’s ability to support modern communications declines, the immediate focus is getting people onto newer, future proofed technologies.”

 “We’re moving to a digital world and Openreach is helping with that transformation by rolling out ultrafast, ultra-reliable, and future-proofed digital Full Fibre across the UK. This game changing technology will become the backbone of our economy for decades to come, supporting every aspect of our public services, businesses, industries, and daily lives. Already, our Full Fibre network is available to 19 million homes and businesses, with more than seven million premises currently taking a service.”

 People can visit our online postcode checker to see if they can already order a Full Fibre service or alternatively, check by contacting their service provider.

  Learn more about digital migration and how the UK’s telephone network is changing HERE