Openreach Land Line Exchange Closures 2023

EssexExile

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.

Signals can travel much further on fibre than copper so buildings can be further apart. Grumpy shouldn't worry, he won't be left without a telephone.

iniltous

Even if an exchange building as well as the PSTN equipment within it is going to be made redundant, the copper D side cables  from the cabinet to distribution points (DP’s) at the top of poles and in  jointing chambers outside people homes and businesses will still exist ,
The ‘fibre’ in your fibre to the cabinet system almost certainly doesn’t come from your local exchange that’s being closed , it comes from the headend exchange OLT , which could be as much as 40Km away, and will be one the ‘main’ exchanges for that area.
 
E side copper cables that run from your cabinet (PCP) ,  ( that will still exist ) , to the local exchange (that won’t exist ) are made redundant by everyone on FTTP or FTTC and DV , and will no doubt be recovered as they are valuable assets, but the fibre to the cabinet and the copper pair to your home will still exist after your local exchange building closes.

Your concern you may be left without any service when your local exchange closes is baseless.

doningtonphil

Just picking up on this old thread.  My in laws have just switched from EE to Plusnet for their telephone and broadband.
The best service they are offered is 8-9 meg, but the Plusnet website makes a big thing of the service they are signing up for is a digital service, and it talks about the switch off in 2025.  The website says this:

This is Fibre broadband without a landline, so there's no line rental costs. Using new technology, there's no phone line needed to set up your connection. This means we'll disconnect your phone line service and:

• You'll lose your home phone number and your home phone service won't work.
• You won't be able to make or receive calls, including to emergency services.

So they are thinking they are just going to have to rely on mobiles!
That can't be right? But it certainly reads that way.  We recently signed up to sky broadband and now we plug our phone into the router rathert ahn the BT socket, but we have kept our phone and phone number.  Will my inlaws be on a different system to us

Neil_Jones

doningtonphil said:

Just picking up on this old thread.  My in laws have just switched from EE to Plusnet for their telephone and broadband.
The best service they are offered is 8-9 meg, but the Plusnet website makes a big thing of the service they are signing up for is a digital service, and it talks about the switch off in 2025.  The website says this:

This is Fibre broadband without a landline, so there's no line rental costs. Using new technology, there's no phone line needed to set up your connection. This means we'll disconnect your phone line service and:

• You'll lose your home phone number and your home phone service won't work.
• You won't be able to make or receive calls, including to emergency services.

So they are thinking they are just going to have to rely on mobiles!
That can't be right? But it certainly reads that way.  We recently signed up to sky broadband and now we plug our phone into the router rathert ahn the BT socket, but we have kept our phone and phone number.  Will my inlaws be on a different system to us

Means what it says.  internet without a phone line.  Plusnet don't offer digital voice whereas I think Sky do so if you want to keep the number with Plusnet you either port it yourself or (If I've understood this correctly) you may be able to take it to somewhere like Sky that does offer a digital voice service.

littleboo

Plusnet don't offer a Digital Voice service. they are now broadband only for new customers. So yes, if they move to Plusnet now, they wont get a voice service and their number will be lost

matelodave

Not all ISPs offer phone service anymore, so you do need to check whether you can get it with your chosen provider, preferably before moving to them and finding out that you've lost your phone and phone number

AFAIK Sky, TT, BT, Zen, Vodafone and one or two others do but some, like Plusnet don't and dont intend to in the future so you'll have to sort out your own VoIP arrangements if you wan to retain a fixed phone or you old number.

Not all of them make it as clear as Plusnet who seem to be making a feature out of losing your phone service so check very carefully what is on offer

Browntoa

Full fibre doesn't need a geographic local exchange

Part of the reasoning for the project is that most exchanges were installed in the 1980s and they are becoming increasingly difficult to maintain and repair .

And at a conservative estimate the recovered copper in the ground and exchanges was worth between 10 to 15 billion pounds . Plus the obvious land value of redundant exchange buildings. 

iniltous

The vast majority of exchange buildings were sold to , and leased back from a company called Telereal ,  most of these buildings will still be in use for many years after the December 2025 PSTN switch off , but when the majority of these can be totally closed , the buildings will be not generate any income for BT Group , they made that many years ago when that lease back deal was struck.
Copper cable recovery will be a big income stream 

Eldi_Dos

Browntoa said:

And at a conservative estimate the recovered copper in the ground and exchanges was worth between 10 to 15 billion pounds . Plus the obvious land value of redundant exchange buildings. 

It is not just the value of recovered cable but the freeing up of duct space. If we were privy to the going rate to instal new duct it would be interesting to know what the estimated value of the duct network is.

Eldi_Dos

iniltous said:

Copper cable recovery will be a big income stream 

D side recovery will probable be a cost on the business, I would imagine E side recovery would have been carried out  when FTTC was carried out,makes sense to free up valuable duct space in a conjested network.