Openreach reveals latest locations facing the copper chop
- Reference: 1729067412
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2024/10/16/openreach_copper_stop_sell/
- Source link:
The business says it is giving telcos which use its network – such as Sky, TalkTalk, and Vodafone – a year's notice that legacy services will no longer be offered if full fiber is available to more than 75 percent of premises in the newly listed locations.
Any customers using these exchanges who do not yet have fiber available at their premises can remain on their current service, the company says.
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This latest set – listed as Tranche 18 by Openreach – comprises 79 locations around the country, said to cover more than 900,000 premises.
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This brings the total number of exchanges where the "stop sell" rules have been activated to 748, and a further 41 exchanges covering another 292,000 premises are scheduled to be added next month.
Openreach claims "Full Fiber" is now available to more than 15 million homes and businesses across the UK, compared to the 12.5 million it reached [4]at the end of last year when the BT Group subsidiary hit the halfway point in its goal of rolling out fiber broadband to 25 million UK premises by the end of 2026.
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If anyone is wondering if full fiber is available in their area, Openreach has a [6]postcode checker that will tell you.
In fact, the ultimate goal for BT is to get everyone onto an entirely IP-based network, and doing away with the legacy Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) service is a key part of that.
However, Openreach has encountered a few stumbling blocks in its plans to switch all customers from analog phone lines to a digital voice service. It had bet on [7]completing the process by the end of 2025 , but [8]announced last month that this was pushed back to the end of January 2027.
[9]Telcos scolded for unwanted erection of utility poles in race to wire up Britain
[10]Openreach pitches its tent as Ofcom preps review of broadband market rules
[11]BT chief blames regulations for UK lagging in next-gen network rollout
[12]Virgin Media to stand up rival network operator to BT Openreach
The decision followed the introduction of a UK government charter to protect vulnerable customers, such as elderly citizens or those with a healthcare pendant that can be used to call for help in an emergency. There were concerns a power cut would mean the phone service is unavailable.
In a statement, James Lilley, Openreach's Managed Customer Migrations Manager, defended the company's decision.
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"Taking advantage of the progress of our Full Fiber 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, operationally or commercially, to keep the old copper network and our new fiber network running side-by-side," he said. "As copper's ability to support modern communications declines, the immediate focus is getting people onto newer, future-proofed technologies."
In a separate development, Openreach also claimed that the village of Llanbrynmair in Powys, Wales, has become the first telephone exchange area in the UK to have 100 percent fiber broadband coverage. This means that every property in the place now has access to high-speed broadband if they want it. ®
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[1] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Zw-OxIV9VxBt4bCF0GpUNgAAAI8&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
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[4] https://www.theregister.com/2023/12/08/openreach_halfway_fiber_milestone/
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Zw-OxIV9VxBt4bCF0GpUNgAAAI8&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.openreach.com/fibre-broadband
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2023/09/26/bt_begins_big_switchover_ahead/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2024/05/21/bt_delays_deadline_for_digital/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2024/09/16/uk_telegraph_poles/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2024/09/09/openreach_review_ofcom_prep/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2024/06/06/bt_chief_blames_regulations_broadband_rollout/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2024/02/19/virgin_media_product_to_rival_openreach/
[13] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Zw-OxIV9VxBt4bCF0GpUNgAAAI8&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[14] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Link
The latest exchanges due to have their customers' service fail in the event of power cuts are listed here:
https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2024/10/openreach-name-next-79-uk-areas-for-copper-to-fttp-switch-tranche-18.html
HAH!
feckin hilarious.
As I've said here before, I live less than 100 yards from a fibre "hub", but since the postcode has 4 residential addresses, and 1 business address we are probably the last post-code on OutBleach's list.
Despite being less than 3 miles from a city centre, we're over a mile from the 2 nearest copper boxes too, so "wired broadband" is useless (BT customer operative actually recommended that we move if we wanted operational broadband...). Fortunately we're close enough to a couple of masts that we get usable 4G connectivity.
I don't actually expect to get FTTP at all.
4G? Looxury! I get 2G using phone semaphore if I'm lucky ...
Thinking about it, it's actually quicker and more reliable to use real semaphore to send a confirmation text to someone on the other side of the site than to use a phone signal ... I was half way home when I got a 4-hour-old text from a colleague the other day!
Pah!
When I were a lad, we had to make do with two tin cans and a bit of string.
Well, I say string, but it was really just a bit of naval fluff that us gran wove into som'it like string.
Youngsters don't know they were born these days.
Amazing
How the whole "a telephone line is a public good" thing has been just waved away. Nobody has really made a fuss (well, they have, but the PPE grads in the MSM don't even know what POTS is) but, when the next big wind knocks down a few pylons, or a goodly thunderstorm trips out the inverters on a big wind farm, you will have no telephone service at all :
Remember how they used to recommend that you had an old-fashioned wired telephone, so you would still have service in a power cut when your DECT phone stopped working?
Well, now, there's minimal battery backup to the fibre cabinet, and unless you are "vulnerable", your local telephone connection has no power. The mobile network will only stay up as long as the battery in your base-station allows - the operators are baulking at ensuring 4 hours, so presumably it's less than that now.
In a couple of years, you will have no way of contacting anyone you can't shout at after no more than an hour or so of power outage. What happens when the crims work this out?
Of course what should have happened is mandating a power pair be laid in with each fibre connection, and a power link from the exchange to each cabinet - with the option to run the system in low-power, slow mode to extend the life of the big generator in the exchange building. But that would require money, and the inability of BT/Openreach to sell off all their old telephone exchanges!
Re: Amazing
but the PPE grads in the MSM
They'll tell you to just use Wi-Fi.
Fibre / Fiber
FFS, el reg. Be as international as you like, but perhaps we could use UK spellings for stories that affect only the UK?