No more copper landlines for 600,000 more UK premises
Key Points
- Openreach has announced 112 new exchanges in the UK to which its 'Stop Sell' rules will apply.
- Communication providers like Sky, Vodafone, and BT operating in these areas have a year's notice before they will no longer be able to sell coper-based products in these areas.
- This is part of Openreach's migration of its infrastructure from copper landlines and DSL broadband to Full Fibre-based products.
Openreach will halt the sale of copper-based phone and broadband products at a further 112 exchange locations in the UK, covering a total of 619,724 premises.
This is the latest stage in the infrastructure provider’s ongoing retirement of copper infrastructure as it rolls out and encourages people to upgrade to fibre-based services.
Where Openreach’s Full Fibre infrastructure is available to more than three quarters of premises served by an exchange, operators such as BT, Vodafone, and Sky will no longer be able to sell new copper-based phone and broadband services in that area.
Openreach has now given notice that this ‘Stop Sell’ rule will apply to a further 112 exchange locations in the UK, with broadband providers operating in these areas given a year’s notice to halt the sale in these locations where Full Fibre availability reaches the required threshold.
By 5 November 2026, ‘Stop Sell’ would have been enacted in 1,663 exchanges across the country, which means that around 16.4 million homes are unable to purchase copper-based broadband of phone services. Full Fibre technology is already available to more than 23.5 million premises in the UK.
Customers can instead purchase faster and more capable fibre-based alternatives, including digital phone products and broadband with connection speeds of up to and sometimes more than 1Gbps.
“Our stop sell programme is a key step in accelerating the UK’s move to a full fibre future,” said Openreach Managed Customer Migrations Director James Lilley.
“As ageing copper networks become less able to meet modern communications needs, our focus is on helping customers move to faster, more reliable digital technologies.”
“Retiring legacy copper services where fibre is widely available will support the industry-wide migration to modern networks, reduce the cost and complexity of maintaining old and new infrastructure side by side, and help ensure customers are ready for the closure of the PSTN in less than four months’ time, when everyone will need a digital phone service,” he said.
