Original article ISPreview UK:Read More
Shropshire-based independent ISP Aquiss has today announced that they switched off their final Fibre-to-the-Cabinet (FTTC) based Openreach broadband service on 7th October 2026, which follows the withdrawal of all their legacy ADSL copper lines back in August 2026 (here). But the underlying technology of FTTC (VDSL2) still lives on via SOGEA packages.
Just to give a little context here. Aquiss are only talking about FTTC as a product from Openreach, not its core technology. The alternative SOGEA (Single Order Generic Ethernet Access) product still uses much of the same underlying VDSL2 broadband and physical infrastructure, but it’s been designed as a data-only solution that no longer requires a traditional phone line product (PSTN/WLR) to work. So if you want a phone service on SoGEA, it needs to be an IP-based (VoIP) style product from your ISP.
Aquiss originally piloted FTTC in 2009, with its first customer live service starting in 2010. In the years that followed, FTTC became the backbone of Aquiss’s superfast broadband offer, taking customers well beyond the limits of ADSL and supporting premises at a time when full fibre was still years away for most of the country.