Last Updated on September 27, 2023 by Tim FitzGerald
If you haven’t heard about the Great British Switch-Off yet, you need to know that 2023 will be the year it really swings into full gear. Here’s how home broadband and telephone services will change forever.
The big switch off
In 2025, the copper telephone network, provided by BT’s Openreach division, will be switched off completely. You might know it as the public switched telephone network (PSTN) network or just that socket on the wall that your phone and router plug into.
The old copper network has been around for more than a hundred years, and it’s beginning to show its age. It is becoming increasingly difficult and costly to maintain, repair and keep up-to-date and – frankly – it is no longer able to adequately cope with our ever-increasing demand for faster broadband connections. We’ve managed to squeeze just about the maximum level of performance out of it. If you’re using a copper or Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC) broadband service, think about how much faster it is today than 20 years ago, but it has just about reached its practical limits. Squeezing extra performance is more expensive and restrictive than the full fibre alternative.
Who is affected
The PSTN provided by Openreach is going away, to be replaced by something better. There are various internet service providers (ISPs) that use the Openreach network. These include BT, Sky, TalkTalk, Plusnet, EE, Vodafone and others. Users of these ISPs are likely to be affected by the switch-off .
Over recent years a number of alternative network providers (Alt-Nets) have been installing high-speed full-fibre internet service in many areas. Users of these altnets are not affected by the PSTN switch-off. If you get your internet and home phone service from VirginMedia, then this change may also affect you. Users of Openreach FTTP full-fibre services will have already made the necessary changes.
Why 2023
But if the switch-off is happening in 2025, why is 2023 such a big deal? That’s all about proper planning and preparation. Imagine if one day in late 2025, your telephone and broadband connection didn’t work anymore. There would be havoc as millions of people across the country were no longer able to communicate, work – or do whatever else they do with their phone connections.
That’s why, two years out from the big event Openreach is to stop selling PSTN. Such a “stop-sell” will make the transition much smoother. It’s already started in fact, but 2023 is the year where the stop-sell will gather real momentum. More and more local exchanges throughout the UK will have their copper services withdrawn from sale. If you’re connected to one of those exchanges, that means you’ll no longer be able to purchase a copper or fibre to the cabinet (FTTC) broadband connection, or a phone line. It’s not just new purchases that will be affected; upgrades, regrades and even repairs will also become increasingly scarce.
Better broadband
As those connections go away, if you haven’t upgraded already, you’ll need a different way to connect to the internet. But as one door closes, another invariably opens. And in the case of copper and FTTC broadband that means more modern alternatives – known as full-fibre or Fibre to the Premises, or (FTTP) and SOGEA (which stands for Single Order Generic Ethernet Access – quite the mouthful).
As the full-fibre rollout continues across the UK, more and more homes will have access to this newer broadband technology that promises greater speeds than the older alternatives – and better reliability to boot. That’s because it doesn’t use the old copper network at all, but rather, fibre optic cables to carry all your data.
In those places where full fibre isn’t available, users won’t be left with no internet service. Instead, they’ll be able to connect to the internet using a SOGEA service which, without going into too much detail, is similar to an FTTC service but without the phone line. It will provide similar levels of performance, so if you’re not able to get a full-fibre connection, SOGEA can keep you connected. And though the telephone network is being switched off, the copper network infrastructure that exists today will keep those SOGEA connections moving.
No phone
When the PSTN network is switched off, if you don’t already have an alternative set up, you won’t be able to make and receive calls at home. Thankfully, we’re already prepared for the transition. Over the course of this year – if you haven’t already – you should be contacted by your ISP regarding your future telephone needs.
Many of the nearly 30 million Openreach home phone users will simply stop using their home phone and use mobile phone services instead. However, many people, particularly those in rural areas, cannot rely on their mobile phone to work when they need it and depend on their home phone. Small businesses also rely on their office phone.
As the copper telephone network is withdrawn from use, you’ll be offered an alternative Digital Voice service. That Digital Voice service will allow you to make and receive calls at home – using your broadband connection instead of traditional telephone lines. It’s a completely different type of technology (VoIP) but as far as the user is concerned, the only difference will come in where the telephone is plugged (into the router instead of the master socket).
A little more
That’s all there is to it, for the most part. And while these changes are profound – how we connect and communicate is going to change completely – by getting ready now, the transition should be perfectly smooth for most of us.
But what if you’re using other services that rely on the copper telephone network – like home alarm systems, emergency pendants or even lift communication services? In that case, we would recommend contacting your supplier to check that they’re prepared for the switch-off. They should have plans in place for what will happen, and they should be able to communicate those plans with you.
But from April 2023 they’ll start expanding those pilots to include lower usage landline customers (those who have a full-fibre broadband connection already) in more locations:-
- East Midlands & Humberside
- Yorkshire
- Northern Ireland
However, BT said they aren’t currently switching certain groups, including:
- people aged 70 and over
- people with additional needs
- people who only have a landline (and not broadband)
- people with telecare alarms
- people with no mobile signal at home.