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Openreach (BT) has warned broadband and phone providers impacted by three of their pilot UK exchange closures – Deddington, Ballyclare and Kenton Road – that they only have c.90 days left to identify their risk cohorts (e.g. telecare customers) and migrate them. The network operator said they were growing “increasingly concerned” about the pressure on their resources from ISPs leaving it too late.
In case anybody has forgotten. Openreach currently operates around 5,600 UK exchanges, but only c. 1,000 of those are used to provide nationwide coverage of modern “fibre broadband” based services (FTTC, FTTP etc.) – the Openreach Handover Points (OHPs). However, the rollout of full fibre (FTTP), combined with the retirement of copper lines and legacy services (ADSL, WLR etc.), will make it economically unviable to support both the old and new exchanges.
The operator thus has a long-term plan for closing the other 4,600 exchanges – known as the Exchange Exit Programme, which starts with their initial pilot of 3 exchanges (see above) and then extends to an initial closure of 105 “priority exchanges” by 2030, with the rest gradually following through the early 2030s.
However, closing an exchange and migrating affected customers is a highly complex process, which typically takes around 4-7 years (depending upon the complexity of each exchange) – starting with a Stop Sell of old products and eventually ending with everything being switched off (Openreach and ISPs then remove their physical equipment over the remaining months).
The three pilot exchanges have already been in this process for a while, with Deddington (covers 1,200 premises) due to reach the final product switch-off on 28th November 2025, while the much larger Ballyclare (9,500 premises) and Kenton Road (9,500 premises) exchanges will reach this point just two days later (aka – Network Cease Date). There may be some exceptions to this date for Deddington.
What’s the problem?
As the deadline nears, Openreach have said they’re growing “increasingly concerned” that receiving orders for the full remaining volume over this reduced timescale may “challenge their available resources” (including engineering, civils etc), especially considering the volume of complex services still live at the pilot exchanges.
The operator is thus calling on communication problems to “urgently work to identify their risk cohorts asap” (Telecare, CNI/Complex, 2 stage FTTP provisions etc.) and share their plans for tackling them with Openreach before 12th September 2025. This is because related customers are expected to have longer than average lead times and orders must thus be placed by mid-September “at the latest” to allow enough time to tackle them before the final switch-off.
The situation is even more urgent for providers with Ethernet (EAD) circuits that still need to shift/cease, which really need to be tackled right now in other to avoid running into the final network cease. Similarly, any ISP that may be planning to use the bulk FTTP broadband ordering process must consider that it has a minimum 6-week lead time (i.e. these must already be underway or there could be issues).
The clear risk here is that some providers are in danger of leaving things so late that their customers could run the risk of being disconnected. “[Providers] who are non-responsive to these points and not actively sharing plans with Openreach should expect that they will see all remaining services being ceased from 1 December 2025, this will include any services with in-flight orders with a CCD that exceeds 30 November 2025“, said the operator. On top of this, providers that have signed up to the Openreach Exchange Exit commercial contract may have compensation withheld if they fail to migrate every line in their base prior to the final exit date.
At this point such issues aren’t too much of a cause for wider concern because Openreach’s pilot only impacts three relatively small exchanges. But the operator won’t want to see this situation repeated when it comes to expanding the process across hundreds and thousands of exchanges in the future, which would risk creating a nightmare scenario for their UK engineering etc. resources.
However, we should keep in mind that the purpose of any trial or pilot is to test and understand things like this, so the hope is that the learnings Openreach and ISPs take away from it will make future closures much less challenging. The first ones are always the hardest. But equally it might just be possible that it ends up taking the network operator a lot longer to shut their old exchanges down then they would have liked.
The alternative would risk a mass of unwanted customer disconnections, which nobody wants to see, especially as it could then turn it into more of a political issue.