Original article Total Telecom:Read More

Press Release

Openreach plans to shut down 80% of its UK exchanges, saying it will only need 1,000 ‘super digital exchanges’ to serve the entirety of the UK

Openreach has exited the Deddington Exchange in Oxfordshire, making it the first of 4,600 exchanges across the UK to be fully de-commissioned as part of a nationwide shift from copper networks to digital full fibre infrastructure.

Deddington also becomes the first UK location to see the closure of BT’s copper based public switched telephone network (PSTN) – which uses copper wires to carry analogue voice signals, with end customers all upgraded to digital full fibre.

The rural exchange is the first of three pilot exchanges (the others being Ballyclare in Northern Ireland, and Kenton Rd in London) that are due to close by the end of November.^[1]

The three exchanges are part of Openreach’s long-term plan to exit 4,600 exchanges. These are currently used to support traditional copper-based phone and broadband voice services and will no longer be required once customers have migrated to fibre. In addition to the three pilot exchanges, Openreach plans to exit a further 105 ‘priority exchanges’ by December 2030.

New digital networks use fibre cables and software-based switches. They need far less physical space than traditional copper-based analogue systems, which require large exchanges to house bulky switches and miles of copper wiring.

The move to digital will mean that Openreach needs just 1,000 ‘super digital exchanges’ – also called Openreach Handover Points (OHPs) – to serve the whole of the UK. On average each OHP replaces 4-5 traditional exchanges. Some OHPs may replace ten or more exchanges – especially in urban areas with high full fibre penetration.

In Deddington, around 1,800 copper lines providing connectivity to local homes and businesses, have now been upgraded to full fibre, with those new digital lines now served and managed by nearby Banbury Exchange – one of Openreach’s new ‘super digital exchanges.’

Closing an exchange and migrating affected customers is a highly complex process, which typically takes around 4-7 years – depending on the size and complexity of each exchange. Openreach announced plans to exit Deddington in 2020, allowing Communication Providers (CPs) to assess legacy equipment and to start notifying customers.

The physical migration of all customer services out of the Deddington exchange took around 26 months, starting with the halting of the sale of traditional copper-based Wholesale Line Rental (WLR)^[2] products and services, in September 2023. Openreach worked closely with CPs to overcome the challenges of identifying lines serving Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) – helping to upgrade everything from traffic light control systems, payment terminals, lift emergency lines, as well as working to safely migrate vulnerable customers and ensuring telecare and telehealth devices work over new digital lines.

James Lilley, Openreach’s Managed Customer Migrations Director, said: “Closing thousands of ‘legacy’ exchanges is a major undertaking, with several million services needing to be migrated. Deddington has served as a proof of concept, demonstrating our ability to decommission legacy exchanges safely, securely, and collaboratively.

“Moving to this new digital world will ultimately benefit everybody. CPs will be able to serve their customers from fewer exchanges, helping to save costs through consolidation of equipment and reduced space and power requirements. And millions of end users will benefit from more reliable and faster fibre-based services – that will be scalable for decades without needing major upgrades.

“It’s not just about switching off old kit—it’s about building a future-proofed, simpler network for the UK.”

With the switching off of legacy services in Deddington now complete, Openreach will continue to work with CPs to remove physical equipment over the next few months to ultimately vacate the building. Teams will assess and re-purpose selected assets, either for use as critical spares across the network or for resale, contributing to sustainability and cost-efficiency.

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Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Network access provider Openreach (BT) has today confirmed that the first of their pilot programme of old exchange closures – Deddington (pictured) – has finally shut its doors and slightly ahead of schedule. The move also means that Deddington is the first UK location to see the closure of BT’s copper based Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN).

Just to recap. The operator currently has c.5,600 UK exchanges, but only c.1,000 of these are needed to provide nationwide coverage of modern “fibre broadband” based services (FTTC, FTTP etc.) – the Openreach Handover Points (OHPs) or “Super Digital Exchanges“. However, the rollout of full fibre (FTTP) technology, combined with the retirement of copper lines and legacy services (ADSL, WLR etc.), will soon make it economically unviable to support both the old and new exchanges.

The operator has thus long since developed a gradual plan for closing the other 4,600 exchanges – known as the Exchange Exit Programme, which starts with an initial pilot of 3 exchanges and then extends to a closure of 105 “priority exchanges” by 2030 (i.e. taking place in four phases over the next 5 years), with the rest then following through the early 2030s.

Deddington is the first pilot exchange to close and also one of the network operator’s smallest – originally serving just 1,800 copper lines. The exchange was officially due to close on 28th November 2025, but it’s managed to achieve that a little ahead of schedule. The local area has now been upgraded to full fibre, with those new digital lines now served and managed by the nearby Banbury Exchange (OHP).

After this come the much larger Ballyclare in N.Ireland (9,500 premises) and Kenton Road in London (9,500 premises) exchanges, which were due to reach the same point just a few days later (aka – Network Cease Date). But as we reported over the weekend, the next two may take a bit longer to completely vacate due to problems with there still being too many active lines / customers (here).

Inside the Deddington Exchange

Closing an exchange and migrating affected customers is a slow and extremely complex process, which typically takes around 4-7 years (depending upon the complexity of each exchange) – starting with a Stop Sell of old products and eventually ending with everything being switched off (only after this do Openreach and ISPs remove their physical kit – usually taking a few months post-closure).

The physical migration of all customer services out of the small Deddington exchange took around 26 months, starting with the halting of the sale of traditional copper-based Wholesale Line Rental (WLR) products and services, in September 2023.

Openreach had to work closely with retail providers to overcome the challenges of identifying lines serving Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) – helping to upgrade everything from traffic light control systems, payment terminals, lift emergency lines, as well as working to safely migrate vulnerable customers and ensuring telecare and telehealth devices work over new digital lines.

James Lilley, Openreach’s Managed Customer Migrations Director, said:

“Closing thousands of ‘legacy’ exchanges is a major undertaking, with several million services needing to be migrated. Deddington has served as a proof of concept, demonstrating our ability to decommission legacy exchanges safely, securely, and collaboratively.

Moving to this new digital world will ultimately benefit everybody. CPs will be able to serve their customers from fewer exchanges, helping to save costs through consolidation of equipment and reduced space and power requirements. And millions of end users will benefit from more reliable and faster fibre-based services – that will be scalable for decades without needing major upgrades.

It’s not just about switching off old kit—it’s about building a future-proofed, simpler network for the UK.”

As previously reported (here), Openreach has already announced that they will start work on the next batch of 12 exchange closures in April 2026. In theory, all of these sites should then reach their Network Closure point by April 2028 and be completely closed by September 2028. 

The next 12 exchanges are:

• Staines
• Thames Ditton
• Baynard
• Wraysbury
• Nazeing
• Langford
• Allestree Park
• Beacon
• Childwall
• Lundin Links
• Carrickfergus
• Glengormley

You can see details on all of the operator’s planned exchange closures via their Excel sheet – here.

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Techy-focused broadband ISP Olilo, which first launched in early September 2025 (here), has today announced that they’re in the process of starting to go live across Freedom Fibre’s alternative open access full fibre (FTTP) network – available to 350,000 premises across various parts of England and North Wales

Related packages cost from £36 per month on a 12-month minimum term for symmetric speeds of 1Gbps with free installation, which rise up to £56 per month for their top 2.5Gbps speed service. You can take these packages for the same price on a 30-day term, but that attracts a £75 one-off installation charge. In addition, customers will need to supply their own router.

At present it appears as if those wanting to connect via one of these packages in a Freedom Fibre covered area can only register their interest (wait list) to do so, but that should change soon. Otherwise, Olilo also sells broadband package via CityFibre and Openreach’s national FTTP networks.

Finally, the provider informed us that some early Cyber Monday deals had gone live, although it’s difficult to identify them from Olilo’s website.

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Mobile operator O2 (Virgin Media) has this morning announced that they’ve begun to switch on their next-generation 5G Standalone (5GSA) mobile broadband network in Norfolk (England) as part of its UK-wide rollout, which is now live in a total of more than 500 locations (70% of the UK’s population or c.49 million people).

Just to recap. 5GSA networks are pure end-to-end 5G that can deliver ultra-low latency times, greater energy efficiency, better speeds (particularly uploads), network slicing, improved support for IoT devices, increased reliability and security etc. Most existing 5G networks use a Non-Standalone (NSA) approach, which is hobbled by being partly reliant upon older and slower 4G infrastructure.

O2’s 5GSA rollout first began in February 2024 (here) and typically aims to reach “at least 90% outdoor coverage” in every location they target. The same will be true for Norfolk and O2’s new 5GSA network has already gone live across their major hubs in Norwich, Great Yarmouth, Kings Lynn and Thetford. The rural county has a total population of around 940,000.

Dr Robert Joyce, Director of Mobile Access Engineering at O2, said:

“We are investing £2m every single day to improve our mobile network and provide a more reliable experience for our customers. By expanding our 5G Standalone network to Norfolk we are upgrading services for local people and are excited about the opportunities the new network will bring. This customer-centric rollout is about futureproofing our network and will pave the way for exciting customer led innovations that lie ahead.”

The operator claims that their 5GSA network is currently “the UK’s largest“, although EE are only slightly behind them on deployment progress (66% coverage). O2’s network upgrade is also available to customers with compatible devices “at no extra cost“.

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Network analyst firm Streetwave, in collaboration with Growing Mid Wales and the Welsh Government (WG), has shared the results from a recent survey they conducted, which tested the mobile broadband coverage and performance of 4G and 5G networks – including EE, Three UK, Vodafone and O2 – around the recently held Royal Welsh Show.

The show is considered to be one of Wales’ main annual agricultural events, attracting over 200,000 visitors to celebrate farming, rural life, livestock competitions, and local produce. Mobile network connectivity is also considered to be a vital part of delivering this because it allows visitors to communicate and access real time event schedules, while also supporting local businesses to process cashless payments etc.

Suffice to say that there was clearly some interest in seeing how well local mobile connectivity performed during the event. In response, Streetwave used one of its portable data collections units – equipped with Smartphones and SIM cards from all major UK mobile networks – to measure local network performance on 2nd July 2025 (baseline testing) and again on 22nd July 2025 during peak attendance at the show.

Overall, Three UK was the only mobile operator (MNO) to improve network quality, with ‘Essential Coverage‘ rising by 40% across the showground and median throughput speeds increasing dramatically by 18,500%, thanks to the deployment of a temporary mast on-site. By comparison, O2 and Vodafone experienced “significant declines” in both coverage and speeds, plummeting by 99% and 37%, respectively, during the event.

Finally, EE demonstrated more stable performance, with Essential Coverage decreasing modestly from 100% before the event to 93% during the show, likely supported by the recent installation of a permanent mast on the site. Detailed results are available after the comment below.

Aled Rhys Jones, Chief Executive Royal Welsh Agricultural Society, said:

“As hosts of Wales’ premier agricultural event, we pride ourselves on offering a warm welcome to all our visitors, exhibitors, and partners. Ensuring robust digital connectivity is now as vital to the Show’s success as our traditional hospitality. Over recent years, we have worked closely with industry and government to improve mobile coverage and digital services across the showground, but we recognise this is an ongoing journey – there is always more to do.

The findings from Streetwave’s independent research highlight just how much bandwidth is consumed during the Royal Welsh Show, underlining the importance of continued investment and innovation to meet the growing needs of our rural community and the thousands who join us each year.”

You can see more results below, although it will be interesting to see whether the outcome for O2 and Vodafone is a bit better for next year’s event, particularly after the recent VodafoneThree merger.

Download Speeds

Upload Speeds

Essential Coverage

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One of our readers has spotted (here) that mobile operator TPO (The People’s Operator) appears to be in the process of gearing up for a relaunch into the UK market, which may come as a surprise to many after the original company went bust in early 2019 (here) – disrupting services for around 15,000 customers in the process.

The revived brand appears to be backed by Uplands Mobiles (Uplands Onetelco Ltd) and aims to “encourage reusing, recycling, and refurbishing mobile devices to cut down on e-waste” (i.e. offering customers cash to recycle their old gadgets), while also committing to contribute “10% of our profits … to causes you care about“.

The refreshed brand has been live online for a while, but they recently added a wait list for their mobile service. “Our wait list is now live. Join today and be first to experience the new TPO eSIM with an amazing founder deal, transparent values, and connectivity that does good,” said the service via social media in October 2025.

The only eSIM plan currently being promoted for this appears to be promising unlimited calls, text and data (mobile broadband) for £15 per month via an eSIM on a 30-day rolling contract. But there’s also vague talk of a “transparent fair usage” policy, which will apparently only be used for “extreme misuse, with notice“. At present, it’s unclear what mobile network (MVNO) this will harness, although the site uses the plural “networks“, suggesting it may be a UK roaming style plan.

The big question now is, once it does finally launch, whether consumers will still trust the brand after the last attempt failed.

Original article Total Telecom:Read More

Press Release

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Mobile operator O2 has revealed that more than 50% of Scotland’s population can now be reached by their 5G mobile network, while its next generation 5G Standalone (5GSA) network has so far gone live across 54 Scottish towns and cities. On top of that, Virgin Media has invested £330m to expand gigabit broadband to more than 1.5 million Scottish premises.

The updates were provided as part of a visit by Scotland’s First Minister, John Swinney, to VMO2’s new Maxim Park office in Lanarkshire (home to 350 staff). O2 also revealed that the operator had more generally upgraded its 4G/5G mobile network in more than 28,000 Scottish postcodes this year alone, enhancing mobile reliability and performance (part of their wider £700m Mobile Transformation Plan).

However, at the time of writing, it’s unclear whether Virgin Media’s separate £330m gigabit broadband upgrades on their fixed line network in Scotland include separate investment from nexfibre. The ISP and network operator notes that their fixed line network now covers “50% of the population, officially making it Scotland’s largest gigabit provider“, except Thinkbroadband’s latest data notes that Openreach’s full fibre (FTTP) covers nearly 57% of premises.

First Minister, John Swinney, said:

“Digital connectivity is central to how we live, work, and learn. It supports our public services, enables economic growth, and connects people and businesses throughout Scotland – something that is particularly important for our rural and island communities.

Delivering better connectivity across the country requires collaboration, and Virgin Media O2 is a valued partner in that work: from investment in fibre and creating new mobile infrastructure, to supporting digital inclusion and our Connecting Scotland programme. I very much welcome the company’s ongoing commitment to Scotland and the invitation to visit its new Scottish headquarters at Maxim Park.”

In addition to the above, VMO2 said they’d now also partnered with the Scottish Government and Citizens Advice to provide 1,200 refurbished smartphones to people who cannot afford devices or data. This is via their Community Calling Partnership with environmental charity Hubbub and the National Databank scheme.

Finally, the provider has also recently announced that they’re working with the Scottish Library and Information Council (SLIC) and Jangala to bring free Wi-Fi connectivity to mobile library services across Scotland. “This first-of-its-kind UK pilot will see mobile library vehicles in rural locations equipped with Jangala’s ‘Big Box’ technology, powered by mobile data donated by O2, that will provide a WiFi connection for residents“, said VMO2.

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The ITS Technology Group, which have deployed various open access full fibre broadband and Ethernet networks across the UK, has today announced that they’ve partnered with bandwidth infrastructure company euNetworks to provide enterprises with direct connectivity to Europe’s “most strategically important” data centres.

The partnership brings together ITS’s business-grade full fibre network, which is already said to reach more than 25% of the UK’s commercial premises (and passing a third of data centres), with euNetworks’ footprint of 582-plus connected data centres across Europe.

Enterprise customers will now be able to take advantage of new high-bandwidth connections, with the two organisations providing connectivity up to 10Gbps from any point on the ITS network to any location across euNetworks’ European footprint. “Enterprises gain direct, secure links to IT workloads and multiple cloud environments, with guaranteed resilience, assured connectivity, and data sovereignty,” said the announcement.

For ITS’s 500+ channel partners, the agreement provides access to integrated point-to-point or point-to-multipoint services with the “most strategically important data centres across the UK and Europe … Offered through a single contract, they will benefit from streamlined ordering, consolidated billing, end-to-end delivery, and in-life service management“.

Daren Baythorpe, Chief Executive Officer at ITS, said:

“UK businesses are demanding faster, more resilient ways to connect to their critical applications and data. By linking our full fibre leased line services with euNetworks’ reach, we’re giving enterprises and partners the ability to scale, innovate and stay secure, without complexity. This collaboration is about delivering the performance and simplicity customers need to thrive in a cloud-first, data-driven world.”

Marisa Trisolino, CEO at euNetworks, said:

“As a European provider of critical bandwidth infrastructure, euNetworks is proud to be able to extend the value of our expansive data centre footprint to ITS’s customers and partners as part of this collaboration. Our joint focus on automation and streamlined operations makes it even easier for UK enterprises to benefit from our combined reach, allowing us to quickly and proactively address the ever-increasing demand for scalable, secure, AI-ready connectivity.”

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Alternative UK broadband ISP Brsk, which harnesses Netomnia’s growing national full fibre network (here), has today officially started to make Netgem TV‘s new IPTV set-top-box and streaming service – PLEIO – available via their broadband and TV bundles. The new kit is both more powerful and features support for the new Freely live TV streaming service.

The development won’t come as much of a surprise because Netgem TV already announced that Brsk would be one of the first ISPs to adopt PLEIO as part of last week’s launch (here), although at the time Brsk hadn’t yet made the new hardware and service available to their customers. But that changes today.

The enhanced BetterTV service from Brsk is currently available exclusively to new full fibre broadband customers. Normally priced at £10 per month, the service is available at launch for a promotional rate of £5 per month (with a £10 activation fee) until 31st January 2026. Readers that want more detail on this should check out last week’s launch announcement above.

Matt Whitworth, Commercial Director at brsk, said:

“Our mission at brsk has always been to deliver simple, reliable, and high-quality connectivity that makes life better. Thanks to our continued relationship with Netgem through PLEIO, we’re able to take that same philosophy into the world of entertainment. We’ve always said that ‘Better Broadband’ deserves ‘Better TV,’ and with this new product, we are now offering a premium alternative to our competitors at a much more affordable price.”

Alternatively, anybody can buy PLEIO at retail via Amazon for £99, but this doesn’t include their optional service subscription for premium channels and games (that’s an extra £9.99 monthly if you buy the hardware at retail). Demand for the new set-top streaming box has also been quite high since it launched, which took Netgem TV by surprise, and thus there’s currently about a one-week wait for delivery (this probably won’t apply to those taking it via brsk).