Openreach (BT) has released the next January 2025 batch of 163 exchanges (Tranche 19) in their “FTTP Priority Exchange Stop Sell” programme, which reflects areas where over 75% of premises are able to get full fibre lines and will thus stop selling copper based analogue phone and broadband products (i.e. FTTP becomes the only product option).

Currently, there are two schemes for moving away from old copper lines and services, which can sometimes cross-over. The first starts with the gradual migration of traditional analogue voice (PSTN / WLR) services to digital all-IP technologies (e.g. SOGEA), which is due to complete by 31st January 2027 and is occurring on both copper and full fibre products (i.e. ISPs are introducing digital voice / VoIP services). The national “stop sell” on analogue phone services began on 5th September 2023 (here).

The second “FTTP Priority Exchange” programme involves the ongoing rollout of gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) lines – using light signals via optical fibre instead of electrical signals via slow copper lines. Only after this second programme has largely completed (75%+ FTTP coverage) in an exchange area can you really start to completely switch-off copper-based products, which will come later as you have to allow time for natural customer migrations.

Between the scrapping of analogue phone services, the full fibre rollout and the gradual switch away from copper lines themselves, this process will take several years in each area to complete, and the pace will vary (i.e. some areas have better coverage of full fibre than others). Naturally, premises that can’t yet get FTTP will continue to be served by copper-based broadband products.

163 New Exchange Locations (Tranche 19)

In this programme, the migration process away from legacy services starts with a “no move back” policy (i.e. no going back to copper) for premises connected with FTTP, which is followed by a “stop-sell” of copper services to new customers (12-months of notice is given before this starts and that is what today’s list represents). This stage is then followed by a final “withdrawal” phase, but that comes later.

The stop sell is applied at premises level, so it shouldn’t impact you if you don’t yet have access to FTTP, although edge-case conflicts may still occur due to rare quirks of network availability.

The 163 exchanges announced today takes the total number of exchange upgrades that have already been notified as part of the aforementioned process (including trial exchanges), or which are actively under “stop sell” to 1,338 (up from 1,175 at the last update). The “stop sell” in the Tranche 19 areas will be introduced from 14th February 2026.

The operator also has a Stop Sells Page on their website, which makes it easy to see all the planned changes. Otherwise, the following list is tentative, so changes and delays will occur (exchanges can and are often shifted around into different tranches).

163 Stop Sell Exchanges in Tranche 19

London-registered network operator EXA Infrastructure, which was acquired by investment firm ‘I Squared Capital’ in 2021, has today announced that they’ve signed binding agreements to acquire specialist connectivity services provider Aqua Comms, which operates a number of transatlantic and intra-European subsea infrastructure systems (fibre optic cables).

EXA Infrastructure currently operates over 150,000km of digital infrastructure across 37 countries, including 20 cable landing stations that provide critical connectivity to subsea systems. Meanwhile, Aqua Comms is an Ireland-based service provider specialising in operating submarine cable systems and supplying fibre pairs, spectrum and wholesale network capacity to the global content, cloud, carrier & enterprise markets.

Aqua Comms is also the owner/operator of the America Europe Connect-1 (AEC-1), America Europe Connect-2 (AEC-2), CeltixConnect-1 (CC-1) and CeltixConnect-2 (CC-2) subsea fibre links and is part of a consortium that owns/operates the Amitié cable system (AEC-3).

Jim Fagan, CEO of EXA Infrastructure, said:

“The acquisition of Aqua Comms demonstrates EXA Infrastructure’s commitment to build a modern and diverse Transatlantic platform to fully serve AI, Cloud and Content demand, now and in the future. The combination will offer our customers more routes, more capacity and increased diversity, all on a scaled platform.”

At present, it’s not known how much money or shares will change hands, although the planned transaction is currently expected to complete in approximately 12 months, subject to customary closing conditions. Akur Capital and RBC Capital Markets are acting as financial advisors to EXA Infrastructure in connection with the transaction and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison is serving as legal M&A advisor to EXA Infrastructure.

Goldman Sachs also acted as financial advisor to D9 in connection with the transaction, and Shoosmiths is serving as legal advisor to D9.

In a small update, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has confirmed to ISPreview that their investigation into the September 2023 cyberattack and data breach of mobile network operator Lyca Mobile (here) is still “ongoing“. But the ICO declined to answer why it was taking so long to reach a conclusion.

The original attack, which disrupted Lyca Mobile’s systems and connectivity services across the UK for a period of time, also resulted in hackers being able to access “at least some of the personal information held in our systems“. Back in early October 2023, Lyca said it would “take some time to fully complete our investigations,” although no further public updates appear to have been issued.

The last time we asked the ICO about their investigation was in March 2024, at which point a spokesperson for the organisation said: “Lycamobile (UK) Ltd made us aware of an incident and our enquiries are ongoing.” By comparison the latest update from Rashana Sweidan Vigerstaff, the ICO’s Senior Communications Officer, simply confirmed that the “investigation is ongoing, therefore we will not be able to provide any further comment.”

The hope is that, one of these days, the ICO may actually be able to reveal more information about what happened, which could present another headache for Lyca given their ongoing multi-million dispute with the HMRC over the VAT treatment of customer “bundles” (here). Not to mention issues with the auditing of their accounts (here) and the recent announcement of significant UK job losses (here). The ICO often imposes fines on companies for major breaches of personal customer data.

Telecoms provider Vodafone UK has confirmed that they’re “working hard to resolve” a problem that appears to be making it difficult for some of their new home broadband customers to claim the operators offer of up to £100 in “switching credit” for inward migrations. This is offered to those who incur Early Termination Charges (ETCs) when leaving their existing ISP.

New customers who believe they may be eligible to claim the Switching Credit, due to having left their previous ISP before the end of their minimum contract term, typically have to fill in a web form on Vodafone’s website and provide proof of the charges. But since late December 2024 a few people have found that, upon pressing ‘Submit‘, the form attempts to redirect to a new page and errors out (fails).

The issue has been found to occur across different web browsers and computer systems, which suggests that it may be caused by something on Vodafone’s side of the process (possibly an incorrect URL in the process). Several related complaints about this can be found on social media and the provider’s own Community Forum.

“Multiple different computers and phones and different browsers. Support clueless and unable to help. Very obviously broken at their end,” said one of those affected.

A Spokesperson for Vodafone UK told ISPreview:

“We’re sorry to our customers who are experiencing issues with claiming switching credit. We are aware of the issue and our teams are working hard resolve it.”

The good news is that most of those impacted have since managed to get the issue resolved, usually by popping into a store to do it or raising a support request, although there are complaints about the latter being quite a time-consuming process. A few others have separately found that the form did eventually submit, albeit only after they made quite a few attempts. Hopefully Vodafone will have resolved the bug by the time this story goes live.

UPDATE 8:42am

Vodafone has just confirmed that “the issue has now been resolved.”

Alternative network operator Netomnia (inc. Brsk and YouFibre) has today announced that they’ve successfully expanded their 10Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP network to cover 2.08 million UK homes and businesses (RFS) on time (up from 1.82m on 30th Sept 2024). Customers have also grown to 238,000 (up from 190k).

The altnet is now focusing on reaching their next target on time too, which was set last year during the Brsk merger (here) and aims to expand their full fibre network to cover 3 million premises by the end of 2025 (inc. 1 million customers by 2028). The service is currently available across parts of over 90 UK cities and towns.

Netomnia has also today published a quick summary of their latest Q4 2024 results, which we’ve summarised below. The eagle eyed will note how the operator can now lay claim to being the “UK’s 2nd largest alternative network provider” after CityFibre, which is a position that nexfibre was laying claim to only a week or so ago after also passing the 2 million premises mark (here) – both have a similar pace of build and may continue to trade places during 2025.

Key Figures from Netomnia’s Q4 2024 Results

➤ Revenue: £38.6m (321% YoY increase)

➤ Premises Serviceable: 2.08m (up 1.27m this year, 255k in the quarter)

➤ Premises Connected: 238k (171k added in 2024, 48K in the quarter)

➤ Take-up Rate: 11.5% (up 38% YoY)

➤ Adjusted EBITDA (£29.6m), down by 13% YoY

➤ Net Debt of £531m (up 223% YoY) – debt drawn to date including accrued interest less cash

Jeremy Chelot, CEO of the Netomnia Group, said:

“Reaching 2 million premises serviceable marks a defining moment for our Group, firmly establishing us as the UK’s 2nd largest alternative network provider. The integration of Netomnia, YouFibre, and brsk is nearing completion, creating the only scaled and capital-efficient retail and wholesale platform in the market.

With our proven execution capabilities, we’re confidently progressing toward our next milestone of 3 million premises serviceable by the end of 2025.”

Separately, back in October 2024 we reported that Netomnia were aiming to start going live with services based off ADTRAN’s cutting edge 50G PON kit by the end of 2024, which would begin with a special package offering symmetric speeds of 40Gbps (here). But we’ve since been informed that the operator is still awaiting hardware from ADTRAN, so we may have to wait a little longer for the first live services to be ready.

In fairness, ADTRAN have previously mentioned that they’ve had some challenges on the hardware supply side, which isn’t too surprising as this is their first kit using a new Broadcom chipset and brand-new box. Suffice to say that the supply and development of cutting-edge kit often needs a bit longer in the oven before it’s ready for the wild at scale.

New data from Ookla, which operates the popular Speedtest.net internet connection benchmarking service, has revealed that the United Kingdom still places near the bottom of the table in Europe for 5G mobile availability (mobile broadband) on a score of just 42.2% (i.e. the percentage of users with 5G devices spending most of their time connected to 5G networks).

By comparison, the Nordic operators have much to celebrate. In Q4 2024, Nordic countries claimed three of the top five positions in Europe for 5G Availability. Furthermore, all four Nordic countries ranked within the top ten. Denmark retained its position as Europe’s leader, achieving an impressive 5G Availability of 83.4%, narrowly surpassing Switzerland, which remains the only other European country to exceed the 80% milestone to date.

Admittedly, country-to-country comparisons are notoriously difficult things to get right, but the new results are particularly poor for a country like the UK, which was once one of the front-runners in the world for early 5G deployments and performance (at least between 2019 and 2020). Mobile operators often point to the negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and supply shortages, but those hit other countries too.

The reality is that the UK’s situation tends to reflect a combination of issues, such as the previous government’s U-turn to ban Huawei – this hit about a year after some operators (e.g. EE) had already started their roll-outs. Mobile operators previously warned that the decision, which also impacted existing 4G kit due to the close interdependency of their networks, could delay the completion of the 5G rollout by 2-3 years and add costs of up to £2bn across all operators.

In addition, Ofcom could have been faster to release 5G friendly spectrum and indeed they still haven’t begun the auction for a large chunk of millimetre wave (mmW) radio spectrum frequency in the 26GHz and 40GHz bands (here). This will be used by mobile operators to deliver faster 5G (mobile broadband) services in dense urban areas and some fixed wireless broadband links.

On top of that, the previous Conservative UK government was fairly lacklustre when it came to setting ambitious targets for 5G. Back in 2017 they talked about getting “the majority of the population covered by a 5G signal by 2027,” which was a very low bar and most commercial operators hit that between 2022 and 2023. However, before leaving office they did pledge for “all populated areas to be covered by ‘standalone’ 5G (5G-plus) by 2030” (here), while the new Labour government has more generally pledged to “make a renewed push to fulfil the ambition of full gigabit and national 5G coverage by 2030“. But solid geographic coverage targets have not been set.

Finally, mobile operators are continuing to face plenty of obstacles when building new masts and rooftop sites, particularly around the difficulty of securing planning permission in a timely and efficient fashion. But the recent merger between Vodafone and Three UK does still aspire to reach more than 99% of the UK population with their 5G Standalone (SA) network by 2034 and push fixed wireless access (mobile home broadband) to 82% of households by 2030. This may well encourage rivals to do something similar.

Perhaps we’ll do better when 6G comes along around 2028-2030.

News 

The new rules are designed to make pricing easier for customers to understand 

Starting today, UK telecom providers must clearly display any future price increases in plain monetary terms at the point of sale, following new regulations introduced by Ofcom.  

The rules are designed to eliminate confusion around mid-contract price hikes, and help customers make better-informed choices. 

In the past, telecom companies often linked price rises in their contracts to inflation rates, leaving customers uncertain about their bills. The lack of clarity made it difficult for consumers to compare deals and calculate long-term costs.  

Now, providers are required to present any planned price increases in pounds and pence and make this information prominent at the time of purchase. Providers must also inform customers of when price changes will occur. 

“More than ever, households want and need to plan their budgets. Our new rules mean there will be no nasty surprises, and customers will know how much they will be paying and when, through clear labelling,” said Natalie Black CBE, Ofcom’s Group Director for Networks and Communications in a press release. 

The updated rules aim to encourage competition and provide consumers with a wider range of contract options. Some providers now offer fixed-price agreements, while others include clauses for price increases. For contracts with unclear hikes, telecom companies must provide at least 30 days’ notice and allow customers to cancel penalty-free.  

Ofcom also highlighted the increased availability of social tariffs, which cater to low-income households. These affordable packages do not include mid-contract price hikes and are available to those receiving some benefits. Over half a million customers are already using social tariffs, though Ofcom suggests that millions of eligible households are still missing out on social tariffs as public awareness around thr packages are low 

The push for greater transparency comes just after of a series of Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) rulings against major UK telecom providers, including BT, EE, Plusnet, TalkTalk, Virgin Media, and O2. Last year, the ASA found that these companies’ ads failed to adequately inform customers about potential mid-contract price rises, violating stricter guidance introduced in late 2024. The watchdog’s rulings criticised the use of small print and vague language, which obscured key pricing details, misleading consumers. 

Keep up to date with the latest international telecoms news by subscribing to the Total Telecom daily newsletter   

Also in the news:
EXA Infrastructure enters into agreement to acquire Aqua Comms
“European competitiveness has one foot in the morgue,” warns Nokia CEO
BT quietly scraps EV charging pilot 

Press Release

EXA Infrastructure has announced today that it has signed binding agreements to acquire Aqua Comms – a specialist operator of Transatlantic and intra-European subsea infrastructure.

EXA Infrastructure, a London based portfolio company of I Squared Capital – a leading independent global infrastructure investment manager, operates over 150,000km of digital infrastructure across 37 countries, including 20 cable landing stations that provide critical connectivity to subsea systems.

Aqua Comms is an Ireland-based service provider specialising in operating submarine cable systems and supplying fibre pairs, spectrum and wholesale network capacity to the global content, cloud, carrier & enterprise markets.  It is the owner/operator of America Europe Connect-1 (AEC-1), America Europe Connect-2 (AEC-2), CeltixConnect-1 (CC-1) and CeltixConnect-2 (CC-2) and is part of a consortium that owns/operates the Amitié cable system (AEC-3).

“The acquisition of Aqua Comms demonstrates EXA Infrastructure’s commitment to build a modern and diverse Transatlantic platform to fully serve AI, Cloud and Content demand, now and in the future. The combination will offer our customers more routes, more capacity and increased diversity, all on a scaled platform” said Jim Fagan, chief executive of EXA Infrastructure.

The planned transaction is expected to complete in approximately 12 months, subject to customary closing conditions.

Akur Capital and RBC Capital Markets are acting as financial advisors to EXA Infrastructure in connection with the transaction and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison is serving as legal M&A advisor to EXA Infrastructure. Goldman Sachs is acting as financial advisor to D9 in connection with the transaction and Shoosmiths is serving as legal advisor to D9.

How is the submarine cable industry evolving in 2025? Join the industry in discussion at Submarine Networks EMEA, the world’s largest submarine cable event

Also in the news:
Adani Group’s ‘foray into industrial 5G’ is a complete failure
Sparkle signs deal to recycle 22,000km of submarine cable
Nokia bags deal to connect new offshore wind farms

Mobile operator Three UK, which was previously aiming to complete the process of switching off their old 3G (mobile broadband) network by the end of 2024 (here), has told ISPreview today that the “vast majority” of their 3G sites were switched off in September 2024. But a “small number” of sites are still live to avoid customers losing service.

As part of the process, most mobile operators have generally been compensating for the 3G switch-off in some areas by introducing upgrades to newer 4G and 5G services. The removal of 3G also freed up some radio spectrum that can be re-farmed for use by modern services, which could boost network performance and coverage. On top of that, operators will benefit from some big cost and energy savings due to not having to cater for the old network.

However, despite now passing the end of 2024, Three UK has yet to announce the full completion of their 3G switch-off programme and some of ISPreview’s readers have found that they still have 3G sites live in various locations (in some cases we’ve also seen evidence of 3G sites being switched off and then switched back on again a few weeks/months later).

A Three UK spokesperson told ISPreview:

“The vast majority of our 3G sites were switched off in September 2024, and as a precautionary measure there were a small number of 3G sites remaining. Our priority is to ensure that no customers lose service, these remaining sites will be prioritised for upgrading before we remove 3G.”

In fairness, Vodafone’s own 3G switch-off programme similarly left a “small number of locations” live with the service after they confirmed completion of their own switch-off programme in February 2024 (here), and much like Three UK they also didn’t clarify precisely how many sites or premises were still covered by the old service – or when these would be closed.

However, it is entirely sensible for a mobile operator to ensure, in a situation where the switch-off may do more harm than good, that they delay the process until local 4G/5G services can be improved first. The fact that Three UK are in the process of being merged into Vodafone may be an additional factor, since that could delay things by opening up previously unavailable network solutions, albeit after the merger completes.

A new Censuswide survey conducted on behalf of broadband ISP Zen Internet, which involved 2,000 nationally representative UK consumers aged 16+, has revealed that 34% of respondents are still “unaware” of the upcoming switch from the old Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) to IP-based digital phone (VoIP etc.) services.

Just to recap. The big switch-off was last year delayed to 31st January 2027 in order to give broadband ISPs, phone providers, telecare operators and consumers more time to adapt (details). But the main focus of this delay was the 1.8 million people who use vital home telecare systems in the UK (e.g. elderly, disabled, and vulnerable people), which aren’t always compatible with the replacement VoIP / IP-based digital phone services (i.e. for everybody else the deadline is still technically Dec 2025).

However, Zen’s survey found that over half (52%) of UK households still use a landline, with 15% relying on it exclusively — a figure that rises to 20% in rural areas where broadband and mobile connectivity is often not as good. In addition, some 66% of respondents remain concerned that older relatives and friends may feel lonelier and more isolated if deprived of their landline, which is of course an entirely avoidable outcome.

Summary of Key Points from Zen’s Survey

➤ Over 55s might typically rely more heavily on a traditional landline phone for keeping in contact with the outside world, but they are the least informed about the digital shift (39%), while Londoners are the most aware (70%). In contrast, regions like the East Midlands and North East are the least informed (both 55%).

➤ 48% of people believe that having a landline number makes businesses more credible, while 35% feel less inclined to trust a company with only a mobile number.

➤ Beyond trust, respondents felt that landlines offer practical benefits, including: Reliable connectivity when mobile reception is poor (41%), a preferred medium for connecting with older family members (39%) and better call quality than mobile phones (28%). The latter is debatable.

➤ Younger demographics (25-34 years old) are increasingly choosing to retain a landline when the switch off happens (44%).

➤ 17% said landlines offer a more personal experience than a mobile, although that is also very debatable.

➤ 53% said they prefer to explain things verbally in phone calls.

➤ 32% plan to keep a landline.

Generally speaking, those with older landlines should have already been contacted by their broadband or phone provider about the coming change, assuming they haven’t already been switched (many have). But if not, then it’s probably wise to contact your ISP and ask what approach they’ll be taking, which is particularly important if you’re somebody in a more vulnerable group (for the best support, your provider needs to know).

Naturally, Zen Internet has a vested interest here, as they’re in a position to help with such transitions. But at the same time, it doesn’t hurt for end-users to take a few minutes in order to ensure they’re prepared for and familiar with the change. For many people, they’ll just end up plugging a handset into the back of their broadband router instead of a wall socket, but others may have more complex needs and requirements to consider.