Openreach progresses ASO
October 20, 2021
By Colin Mann
As part of its ongoing programme to upgrade the UK’s old analogue phone network to new digital products and services, UK digital infrastructure provider Openreach has announced a further 79 exchanges where it is planning to stop selling its legacy analogue services and instead focus on providing people with a modern, futureproof Full Fibre connection that can deliver all manner of new digital services over the top.
Openreach is giving Communication Providers (CPs) 12 months notification that it will no longer be selling copper-based products/services in these 79 exchanges – covering some 500,000 premises. This brings the total number of exchange areas – now notified for ‘stop sell’ to more than 450 exchanges covering around four million premises.
Openreach’s ‘stop sell’ policy is now active across 134 of these fibre exchanges covering some 1.3 million premises
“Twelve months ago, we informed our Communication Provider customers that we would stop selling copper products in exchanges that reach 75 per cent full fibre coverage,” advised James Lilley, Director for managed customer migrations, Openreach.” This is now a reality for 134 fibre exchanges covering c.1.3 million premises across the UK in what is a major stepping-stone in our 10-15 year journey to move from a copper network to full fibre.”
“Just over two years from now, Openreach will stop selling products that rely on the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). And over the next five years, we’ll upgrade some 14 million analogue lines – including the now ageing traditional landline telephone service – to digital All-Internet Protocol (All-IP).”
“Today we’ve announced a further 79 exchanges where we plan stop selling copper products – which brings the total to more than 450 exchanges across the country, covering around four million premises. Every quarter, we’ll announce more stop sell exchanges as we continue to upgrade the UK’s digital infrastructure and build our full fibre network to 25 million homes and business by 2026,” he added.