Openreach has announced that its wholesale customers will have twelve months' notice to withdraw legacy analogue products and services, including copper PSTN phone lines, at premises where full fibre is now available.
The move is the latest expansion of its stop-sell programme, designed to accelerate migrations off copper ahead of the PSTN switch-off in January 2027. This will see wholesale customers unable to use traditional landline phones, and to VoIP services, such as BT’s ‘Digital Voice’. By 5th June, the stop-sell will be active in 1,432 exchanges, covering roughly 14.2 million premises. Customers in fibre-served areas will be invited to upgrade, while those still waiting for fibre availability remain on existing copper-based services until the technology reaches them.
Managed Customer Migrations Director James Lilley said that the stop sell is "a vital step in accelerating the UK's transition to a modern full fibre future," arguing that phasing out legacy services where fibre is widely available reduces the cost and complexity of running parallel networks ahead of the PSTN switch-off.
The stop-sell push sits alongside other levers Openreach has been pulling on the copper-to-fibre transition. In January it cancelled copper plans across 32 exchanges and 1.2 million premises, and late last year it announced copper price rises, including increases that will effectively double prices in the final three months before the PSTN switch-off.