Openreach has announced a further 79 new exchange locations, covering more than 900k premises across the UK, have been added to its stop sell programme.
Communication Providers like BT, Sky, TalkTalk and Vodafone, which use its network, will receive a year’s notice that Openreach will no longer be selling legacy analogue products and services where Full Fibre becomes available in these new exchange locations.
Stop Sell is triggered when a majority (75%) of premises connected to a particular exchange can get ultrafast Full Fibre. Customers who then want to switch, upgrade or re-grade their broadband or phone service will have to take a new digital service over the new Full Fibre network.
To date ‘sell’ rules have been activated in 748 exchanges – meaning more than six million premises are now under active Stop Sell. These are premises where Full Fibre is available to the majority and new copper products cannot be sold. A further 41 exchanges covering another 292k premises are due to go live next month.
James Lilley, Openreach’s Managed Customer Migrations Manager, said: “Our Full Fibre network is available to more than 15 million homes and businesses, with more than five million premises currently taking a service. Encouraging people to upgrade to our new network is the right thing to do. As copper’s ability to support modern communications declines, the immediate focus is getting people onto newer, future proofed technologies.”
