Openreach is to stop selling legacy analogue copper-based phone/broadband services in a further 163 locations, covering more than 960,000 premises across the UK, to help encourage people to upgrade to new digital services over a full fibre connection.
Communication Providers that use its network will get a year’s notice that the company will no longer be selling legacy analogue products and services where full fibre becomes available to a majority (more than three quarters) of premises in these new exchange locations.
By mid-February, Stop Sell rules will have been activated in 852 exchanges – meaning more than seven million premises will be under active Stop Sell - around 40 per cent of Openreach’s total 17m full fibre footprint.
James Lilley, Openreach’s Managed Customer Migrations Manager, said: “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.”