Openreach Land Line Exchange Closures 2023

Grumpy70

I have found out my local BT/Openreach telephone exchange is due to close sometime before the end of this year! This means my “Fibre To The Cabinet” internet connection and telephone land-line will no longer be available. I will no longer be able to use the internet for home shopping deliveries, internet banking or phone for an ambulance in an emergency or even speak to my friends. I am retired, disabled and cannot afford a “smart phone” let alone know how to use one. I understand the BBC will be closing down all their Long Wave and Medium Wave radio stations soon, so my cheap to run battery radio will soon be useless. Also, someone said on TV, that soon we will only be able to watch TV by streaming via the Internet, so my TV will be obsolete, unless I get one of the yet to be invented new TV Streaming set-top boxes. But I won’t have an Internet connection - I live in a block of flats, and there are no plans for us to get a Full Fibre service as it is not financially viable. None of the ISP’s or consumer advice organisations have any advice. Has anyone else got similar worries like me? If so, please could you share any ideas as to how we can avoid being left in complete isolation?

littleboo

I think there is probably some confusion, the analogue phone system is being shut down, but there is a replacement service. Who has told you that your internet connection will no longer be available?

Grumpy70

According to BT/Openreach the only alternative to the analogue phone line is the new VOIP digital system which requires an Internet connection, and to get that, I need to “upgrade” from the FTTC landline internet connection, which I will loose, to FTTP via CityFibre for example, but this is not available at my postcode. They said, as well as the telephone exchange will be closed, the phone land line cables from the green cabinet in the street which go underground to our block, will probably be disconnected. There are 6 flats over 3 floors affected.

iniltous

If you have FTTC broadband, the only difference you may encounter is telephony, you will at some point in time need to plug your phone into the broadband router rather that than the existing phone socket , some ISP are further along moving their customers onto an ‘IP’ system and off the public switched telephone network, the PSTN switch off doesn’t affect broadband, yours will continue to work as it does now ….at some point in the future the copper pair network will be retired, but shouldn’t be confused with the pending PSTN switch off, which is the just the telephony ‘switch’ equipment in the exchange , the way calls are made and received is what’s changing that all 

J_B

iniltous said:

.............. ….at some point in the future the copper pair network will be retired, but shouldn’t be confused with the pending PSTN switch off, which is the just the telephony ‘switch’ equipment in the exchange , the way calls are made and received is what’s changing that all 

Can you explain this please?

We have copper landline only from BT and internet from a WISP service as OR are unable to provide FTTC (and FTTP is about 15K!!)

iniltous

The PSTN switch off is due by the end of 2025 , so still over 30 months to go , your type of situation will ( probably ) be the last type of migration, given that you don’t have any OR based broadband but do have a ‘landline’.
OR do have a 0.5Mb ‘broadband’ product, this is in preparation for those using telephony on very long lines that don’t support broadband, all IP telephony requires a tiny amount of bandwidth, so lines that are ‘too long’ to support a regular broadband service may support this 0.5Mb service, those in this category, supposedly will be supplied with what in essence would be a scaled back router , that can hang onto sync on very long lines , and enable ‘telephony’ to be provided…the long line copper pair will still exist , the 0.5Mb service could be delivered from the exchange or possibly a FTTC cabinet, depending on the individual customers situation.
The DV program at the moment is migrating the ‘easy’ customers , the problematic customers that cannot currently get any landline based broadband from Openreach will be the very last to be dealt with , so details will probably remain sketchy until mid 2025, it’s also possible that these customers may not even be reachable with this low bandwidth broadband ( used just for telephony) and other solutions used , possibly a mobile solution if that happens to be available 

Grey_Critic

Virgin and BT are taking a lot of calls from People about this. Not everybody wants and internet connection - Not everybody is interested - just another case of people being disenfranchised. Pensioners and disabled people do need a phone.

iniltous

Consumers who end up getting telephony via this low bandwidth broadband won’t necessarily realise they have a type of broadband at all , all they will know is that the phone plugs into a ‘box’ that plugs into the mains and the landline phone socket , the only real complaint about it not working in power outages etc, can be mitigated with a UPS/battery back up ,
  PSTN is on its last legs , IP telephony is something that all countries are adopting and irrespective  that some would prefer it wasn’t happening,  it is .

Grumpy70

I hear and understand all the replies, that PSTN services will be switched off, and ADSL broadband will remain on the copper wires from the Green Cabinet in the street to people’s homes etc. But, my exchange is closing, sold off knocked down and redeveloped for housing. I will more or less no longer have any copper wire connection to my premises, therefore no ADSL either. FTTP has almost taken over except for where I live so no ISP can offer me any FTTC or FTTP service.

brewerdave

Grumpy70 said:

I hear and understand all the replies, that PSTN services will be switched off, and ADSL broadband will remain on the copper wires from the Green Cabinet in the street to people’s homes etc. But, my exchange is closing, sold off knocked down and redeveloped for housing. I will more or less no longer have any copper wire connection to my premises, therefore no ADSL either. FTTP has almost taken over except for where I live so no ISP can offer me any FTTC or FTTP service.

Don't how your situation fits within BT's USO for phone services ? Surely they can't be intending to disconnect x houses and blocks of flats ? Even full fibre has to come via an exchange of some sort.

Eldi_Dos

brewerdave said:

Grumpy70 said:

I hear and understand all the replies, that PSTN services will be switched off, and ADSL broadband will remain on the copper wires from the Green Cabinet in the street to people’s homes etc. But, my exchange is closing, sold off knocked down and redeveloped for housing. I will more or less no longer have any copper wire connection to my premises, therefore no ADSL either. FTTP has almost taken over except for where I live so no ISP can offer me any FTTC or FTTP service.

Don't how your situation fits within BT's USO for phone services ? Surely they can't be intending to disconnect x houses and blocks of flats ? Even full fibre has to come via an exchange of some sort.

I have seen in some rural areas where a exchange which only has a few subscribers that a couple of cabinets with equipment and cables are installed outside and the small old exchange building hived off.
Should not make any difference to quality of service supplied.