The Continued Evolution of UK Connectivity: May 2024 Updates

As Openreach plans to build full-fibre to the premises (FTTP) to more than 25 million locations by the end of 2026, PXC remains fully committed to supporting our Partners with the transition to a full-fibre, all-IP future using Openreach access, supplemented with alternative fibre networks.

The exponential growth in full-fibre availability has led Openreach to notify Communication Providers of its intent to begin retiring legacy access technologies and services on an exchange-by-exchange basis, starting with 108 exchanges between 2024 and 2030.

At the same time, they are also withdrawing their legacy Voice infrastructure which supports their Wholesale Line Rental services (WLR). Openreach had previously planned for all Communication Providers (CP’s) to move customers off WLR by December 2025 however this has now been extended to 31st Jan 2027, giving an additional 13 months.

Despite this announcement, we recommend that all ongoing activity should continue at pace, as the extension is primarily aimed at aiding Complex and Vulnerable migrations.

PXC therefore remains committed to supporting you and your customers and can help with plans to migrate away from legacy WLR voice services impacted such as PSTN single line, PSTN multi line and ISDN products and the legacy broadband access services which run on WLR such as SMPF, WBMC and WLR+FTTC.

Partners are reminded that our MPF products remain a compelling holding option or migration option to replace WLR, in locations where the exchange is unbundled for MPF, not marked for future closure or under FTTP Priority copper stop sell rules.

Please do not hesitate to contact your Account or Service Manager, or alternatively contact exchangeevolution@pxc.co.uk

1. Openreach Exchange Exit Pilot – 3 exchanges in 2024.

Openreach originally announced that they intended to fully close 5 local exchanges in 2024 as part of their Exchange Exit pilot, however this was reduced to 3 exchanges in late 2023.

The 3 exchanges that Openreach plan to close in 2024, are Deddington (which had a planned closure data at the end of March 2024 and now only has a handful of lines remaining under special exemptions), Kenton Road and Ballyclare, which are currently planned for closure on 21st September 2024.

The 2 exchange closures in September 2024 will impact WLR and MPF based copper voice and broadband services (including FTTC and GFAST). These will need to be transitioned to All IP Products by the exchange closure date. The alternative All IP products will predominantly be FTTP (90% coverage currently) or alternatively SOGEA (10% coverage) where FTTP is not available, both with Digital Voice where required. These All IP products will terminate in the Metro (Parent) exchange meaning that they no longer have a dependency on the local exchange for traditional voice and broadband services.

All pilot exchanges have already been announced as FTTP Priority Stop Sell exchanges and have been in FTTP Priority Status (Copper Stop Sell) since April 2022. The Copper Stop Sell rules for these exchanges have been extended to include all copper-based services, irrespective of whether FTTP is available at the premises.

Openreach has also put a Stop Sell on the new provision of any Ethernet (EAD) circuit that terminates or traverses these exchanges. Any new EAD circuits required at premises served by these local exchanges must be ordered so that they terminate in an exchange that is not one of the five Full Local Exchange Exit Pilot exchanges and cannot traverse via these 5 exchanges to an alternative exchange.

In addition to this, all Ethernet (EAD) services that terminate on, or traverse, these exchanges must be redirected so that they terminate on or are redirected via other exchanges. Openreach has agreed to fund Mainlink charges to “long-line” existing EAD circuits from these 3 exchanges to different (probably Metro) exchanges.

Please Note - within the pilot exchanges there are a significant number of complex sites, and we are working collaboratively with Openreach to scope whether these are achievable within the proposed timeframes of the Pilot, and that the Exchange Exit Pilot satisfactorily proves Openreach capabilities and processes.

Next Steps – to prepare for exchange exit in September 2024 we recommend reviewing your assets to understand any CNI or heavily impacted features like lifts, fire alarms and vulnerable customers.

Note - The Carrickfergus and Glengormley exchanges that were originally in the Pilot but were formally withdrawn by Openreach in late 2023 and have been moved to Phase 1 (April 2028), however PXC plan to extend the learning from the 3 remaining exchanges in the Openreach Pilot and have chosen to work with selected partners to migrate appropriate copper and ethernet lines to alternative all IP products in 2024 at these additional 2 exchanges (see Section 5 for more information on our plans).

2. Openreach Exchange Exits Phases 1 to 4 – 105 exchanges by end of 2030.

Openreach has announced that they intend to fully close 105 exchanges between April 2028 and the end of 2030. This will involve fully withdrawing MPF at these exchanges (the expectation is that WLR will have been withdrawn nationally by then). Ethernet (EAD) circuits that terminate or traverse these local exchanges will need to be redirected or transferred to a Metro exchange or nearby local exchange.

The full exchange closures will be performed in tranches between 2028 and 2030. The timelines for these 105 exchanges are:

Phase 1 - 12 exchanges to be closed by April 2028 (was previously December 2027) includes the 2 exchanges moved from the Pilot.

Phase 2 - 20 exchanges to be closed by April 2029 (was previously December 2028)

Phase 3 - 30 exchanges to be closed by April 2030 (was previously December 2029)

Phase 4 - 43 exchanges to be closed by December 2030

For a breakdown of exchanges in each tranche please see the Table in the Appendix at the end of the blog.

3. WLR Stop Sell and WLR National Withdrawal – extended to 31st January 2027 (new date).

Important Note: MPF (including MPF-based broadband) is not impacted by WLR National Stop Sell or National Withdrawal.

WLR and WLR-based broadband products (using WBMC, FTTC or GFAST) were placed under National Stop Sell by Openreach on 5th September 2023*. Openreach were originally planning to complete the full National WLR Withdrawal by December 2025, however as part of the release of the BT Group Financial results for FY24, they announced that the WLR national withdrawal timescales will be extended 13 months to 31st January 2027.

Despite this announcement, we recommend that all ongoing activity should continue at pace, as the extension is primarily aimed at aiding Complex and Vulnerable migrations. See Section 5 for more information.

Partners are reminded that PXC MPF services are not restricted by the National WLR Stop Sell and Withdrawal. It will still be possible to order MPF copper lines and MPF-based connectivity products on PXC enabled LLU exchanges irrespective of whether SOGEA or FTTP is available, including ADSL, FTTC, GFAST, EFM and EoFTTC, unless copper restrictions rules are in place at either i) FTTP Priority exchanges (where FTTP is available) or ii) at the Kenton Road and Ballyclare Openreach Pilot Exit exchanges.

Note - Product options for non-PXC enabled LLU exchanges will vary due to the unavailability of MPF in these exchanges, and will therefore be limited to either SOGEA or FTTP based products, along with IP Voice if required.

Key Message - Existing WLR-based services that were provisioned before the WLR Stop Sell came into effect will continue to be supported but must be moved to an alternative product before end of January 2027. MPF lines and MPF-based broadband products are not impacted nationally by Openreach WLR withdrawal and will not need to move away from MPF by end of January 2027.

Next Steps – to prepare for WLR withdrawal by end of January 2027 we recommend reviewing your assets to understand any CNI or heavily impacted features like lifts, fire alarms and vulnerable customers.

* Openreach extended the deadline for ‘exceptions’ to the WLR Stop Sell rules through to March 2025, these ‘exceptions’ allow the continued placement of WLR orders but only where FTTP and SOGEA is not available. This is to allow time for CPs to consume the SOTAP product. After March 2025, it expected that only SOTAP and MPF may be ordered where FTTP and SOGEA are not available. For full details of other Openreach exemptions please visit the Openreach All IP Programme website here.

4. FTTP Priority Exchanges - Copper Stop Sell

As part of Openreach’s aspiration to drive FTTP uptake in the UK, they have started imposing Copper Stop Sells at exchanges where they have invested heavily in deploying FTTP capability, these are known as FTTP Priority exchanges.

FTTP Priority status and Copper Stop Sell can only be triggered when FTTP coverage has reached 75% of all premises in the Exchange area.

The first FTTP exchange to go into Copper Stop Sell was the Salisbury trial exchange, where the Stop Sell commenced in December 2020. Since this date Openreach have made quarterly announcements on future tranches of exchanges that will be targeted for FTTP Priority status.

FTTP Priority status stops new orders for copper lines (WLR and MPF) and copper-based connectivity (ADSL, FTTC, SOGEA, GFAST, SOGFAST, EFM and EoFTTC) if the applicable premise has FTTP availability.

These restrictions will also apply to moves, adds and changes of existing lines. Migrations between providers and upgrades of existing lines to other copper-based products (e.g. ADSL to FTTC upgrades) as well as speed changes on FTTC (e.g 40 to 80Mbps) modify orders will no longer be supported by Openreach.

Where FTTP is not available, MPF copper lines, as well as MPF-based broadband products, can still be ordered as usual. (WLR is only available from 5th September 2023 as an exemption).

If a premise is enabled for FTTP provisioning after the Stop Sell is already in effect, then the Stop Sell restrictions immediately come into effect for both WLR and MPF.

Note - As part of the National WLR withdrawal, all WLR lines and WLR-based broadband products must be moved by end of January 2027. However, outside of the pilot Openreach Exchange Exit sites (where Openreach have announced they are fully closing the exchange), MPF-based products on FTTP Priority Stop Sell exchanges do not need to be moved by January 2027.

The conditions Openreach must meet before withdrawing MPF-based services at FTTP Priority Exchanges will be set by Ofcom in the next Wholesale Fixed Telecoms Market Review. Any new regulations announced as part of this review will take effect in April 2026. The End-of-Life dates will be the dates by which all MPF-based services must be moved to FTTP where available. WLR and WLR-based broadband products will have already been withdrawn nationally by this point. Any MPF withdrawal notification announced by Openreach on an FTTP Priority Stop Sell exchange will give at least 12 months’ notice.

PXC expect Openreach to announce price rises on MPF-based services to encourage migration to FTTP in due course. Before doing so they must give at least one year’s notice and meet criteria yet to be set by OFCOM.

FTTP Priority Exchange – Numbers update

As of May 2024, Openreach has announced a total of 1004 FTTP Priority Stop Sell exchanges. With 115 exchanges (Tranche 12) due to go into Stop Sell on 4th June 2024, and Tranche 16 (88 exchanges) being the latest announced set of exchanges.

In total 594 exchanges are now actively in Stop Sell (figure will increase to 709 on 4th June), and the remaining announced exchanges will go into Stop Sell over the next 12 months. More announcements of future tranches will continue to be made quarterly.

Note - Openreach will always give 12 months’ notice between announcing a new tranche and invoking the Stop Sell in that tranche. If an announced FTTP Stop Sell exchange has not hit the minimum FTTP premises passed level of 75% by the Stop Sell date, the Stop Sell will be postponed for that exchange, or could be cancelled altogether. Openreach has already removed some previously announced exchanges from their FTTP Priority Stop Sell plans, due to ‘complex build issues currently preventing the 75% total homes passed (THP) metric being achieved’.

Here are the next tranche updates you need to know about:

• Tranche 12

  – containing 115 exchanges, is due to go into Stop Sell on 4th June 2024.

• Tranche 13

  – containing 41 exchanges, is due to go into Stop Sell on 16th August 2024.

• Tranche 14

  – containing 34 exchanges, is due to go into Stop Sell on 8th November 2024.

• Tranche 15

  – containing 50 exchanges, is due to go into Stop Sell on 17th February 2025.

• Tranche 16

  – containing 88 exchanges, is due to go into Stop Sell on 26th May 2025.

• Note

  – an additional 82 exchanges have been announced, but no dates have been confirmed yet by Openreach.

See the Appendix at end of the blog to view the current list of Stop Sell volumes per Tranche.

For full details of the Openreach briefing, including a link to the latest impacted exchange list, please click here.

5. PXC plans in response to the continued evolution of UK connectivity.

PXC are striving to be ahead of the curve described in sections 1 to 4 above and have already engaged several of our partners, and wider industry to make sure that we are well prepared for each of the key projects. We have completed a trial exiting 10 of our quietest exchanges, participated in Openreach’s pilot migration in project Belfast (this includes selected lines at Carrickfergus and Glengormley exchanges even though they were officially removed from Openreach’s pilot exchange exit plans in 2024), and the removal of all WLR lines in the trial at the Salisbury and Mildenhall exchanges. All of this was undertaken to design and refine both the internal and industry processes that will be so essential to the success of the UK’s transition.

This year also sees the formal exit of 3 exchanges by Openreach, as part of its Exchange Exit Pilot Programme. This commenced with the Deddington exchange, where the March closure deadline has now passed and only WLR lines under telecare exemptions remain. Work will continue with the Kenton Road and Ballyclare exchanges, which are scheduled for closure on 21st September.

Alongside these 3 exchange closures, we are starting our programme to withdraw legacy products that are associated with copper networking, such as SMPF*, EFM, CPS & GFAST, all of which will end with the ultimate withdrawal of WLR services by end of January 2027.

With the launch of SOGEA and FTTP, as well as the continued operation of our MPF Network beyond WLR withdrawal deadlines, we can offer a choice of future proof destinations.

*Note - Partners impacted by our early withdrawal plans on SMPF at certain exchanges will be contacted directly to agree way forward – see below.

PXC Response to delayed WLR Withdrawal dates.

Following the WLR stop sell in September 23, Openreach had previously planned for all CP’s to move customers off WLR by December 2025 however this has now been extended to 31st January 2027. The newly announced date therefore gives CPs an additional 13 months to do the same. The extension is aimed at Complex and vulnerable migrations, we will continue to support partners with current plans to migrate away from legacy copper services.

Openreach have issued some clear guidance around this extension:

The expectation is that CP’s continue migrating at pace and very much aim at the end of 2025 for all standard services.

This extension is focused on giving CPs more time to identify and safely migrate their vulnerable customers and complex use case scenarios.

Exchange exist plans will continue, with 2 exchanges due to exit in September this year and a further 105 between April 2028 and December 2030.

FTTP Stop sell exchanges remains and continues to grow, with 594 exchanges currently only offering FTTP (when available) and 410 further exchanges announced expected to have Copper Stop Sell applied over the next 12 months.

MPF is currently still an option for WLR customers (as long as the serving local exchange is unbundled for MPF and FTTP stop sell and exchange exit stop sell rules are not in place).

It’s also worth noting that Openreach is set to terminate existing WLR contracts in December 2025, replacing them with a 3-month rolling contract they will utilise if not seeing enough traction from CP’s.

What happens next?

Our approach will remain consistent:

MPF remains a compelling holding option in locations where the exchange is not marked for closure or FTTP stop sell. Migrating to MPF now extends the window for migration to at least 4 years away and only initially impacts 12 out of 5,500 Openreach exchanges (excluding the two exchanges due for closure in September 24).

We have additional SOGEA and FTTP journeys coming online over the coming weeks to facilitate more migrations.

We will be continuing with our plans to end of life of WLR based products; such as SMPF, EFM, CPS & GFAST, as planned before 2025.

We are beginning our programme to migrate services away from SMPF imminently and have already started to engage partners.

We are starting to engage directly with any relevant Partners to run through the detail of the services and plan how we will support in the migration of existing products, or the transformation of any legacy products to Full Fibre solutions.

We have mapped all these services to their migration options, and we will engage with impacted Partners to run through the options available across those services and how we can support them though the journey.

PXC is committed to supporting our Partners with the leap to full-fibre.

PXC has launched Managed and Wholesale (Layer 2) FTTP services to utilise the growing availability of FTTP and support Partners in transitioning customers impacted by Stop Sells at FTTP Priority exchanges. The service is available via our new FTTP ordering portal and complemented by APIs to support Sales and Provisioning journey automation.

PXC will further support Partners with transitioning their customers to an all-IP future by providing Managed and Wholesale SOGEA. These products are currently in trial and will be released in the coming months. A single line PSTN VoIP solution for use with Managed FTTP and SOGEA is also being developed. Testing of this solution has begun, and it will be deployed in H2 2024.

PXC Availability Checkers

All our Availability Checkers (Portals and APIs) will show the correct product availability on Stop Sell exchanges and advise where copper-based products are no longer available due to Stop Sell.

Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) is of key importance.

With Stop Sell well underway, it is important for Partners to analyse the impact to Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) locations within Stop Sell exchanges. CNI is a subset of Stop Sell data and should be a focus for Partners to ensure a smooth transition for customers.

PXC would like to work with our Partners to help identify their CNI lines and work through the analysis steps with you. We have been analysing our lines and are at a point where we can share more data and insight for those with CNI services that will be affected by Stop Sell.

If you would like to know if our CNI data can help you and your customers, please get in touch with your Account Manager who will be more than happy to work on this with you.

We're here to help you with your analysis and next steps of planning.

We recommend partners start preparing for all aspects of exchange evolution by reviewing their PXC provided assets and gain an understanding of any CNI or heavily impacted features like lifts, fire alarms and vulnerable customers.

PXC remains committed to supporting you and your customers, if you have any further queries or would like more information on how we can help with your WLR withdrawal, Exchange Closure, Copper Stop Sell and CNI analysis requirements, please do not hesitate to contact your Account or Service Manager, or alternatively contact us at exchangeevolution@pxc.co.uk.

Finally remember if there are any changes within your organisation, inform PXC of changes of contact details, or ideally look to setup a specific generic managed mailbox for Exchange Evolution comms and updates, for example exchange_evolution@<yourcompanyname>.com that can be accessed by multiple people within your organisation, so we can keep in touch with you via one central place.

Appendix

Openreach Exchange Exit list for Pilot (3 exchanges) and Phases 1 to 4 (105)

Bold – exchange already in FTTP Priority Copper Stop Sell status.

Italics – exchange not a PXC LLU exchange.

FTTP Priority Exchange list (up to and including Tranche 16).