Openreach has disclosed another tranche of locations where providers will be barred from selling legacy copper-based services to premises that can receive full fiber as it pushes customers toward newer digital connections.

The wholesale arm of BT, Britain's former state-owned telecoms monopoly, Openreach announced the latest batch of exchanges notified for "Stop Sell."

There are 112 sites in this latest batch, the 25th tranche to be notified. Stop Sell is triggered once 75 percent of the premises connected to an exchange can access "full-fiber" broadband, otherwise known as fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP).

That doesn't mean 75 percent of the premises connected to a particular exchange are actually using FTTP, however, just that it is "available" for them.

Customers at those exchanges who are not yet able to get full fiber won't be affected, Openreach says, and can stay on their existing copper cable-based service until fiber does become available to them.

The telco is also reminding customers that it's retiring the legacy analog PSTN phone service by January 31, 2027 – just six months away. By that time, it expects everyone in the UK to have moved to a digital phone service, in preparation for eventually ditching their copper line for fiber.

Under a previous timetable, the legacy phone service was due to retired by the end of 2025, but BT/Openreach was obliged to extend the deadline as it resolved issues regarding vulnerable users, including the elderly and telecare customers who rely on alarms operating via the phone network.

"By phasing out legacy copper-based services in areas where fiber is now widely available, we're ensuring customers and providers move onto faster, more reliable, digital infrastructure," said James Lilley, Openreach managed customer migrations director.

Openreach now says it will have activated "stop sell" rules in 1,572 exchanges across the UK by August 20, covering around 15.4 million premises. At addresses where FTTP is available, providers will no longer be able to sell legacy copper products. It says this is equal to about 57 percent of the firm's total fiber footprint.

The biz also claims its engineers are extending the network to around one million additional premises every three months, aiming to reach 25 million by the end of 2026 and 30 million by 2030.

Earlier this year, Openreach started to get tougher with commercial laggards, in an attempt to get them to ditch the legacy phone service. It started upping the charges to service providers and companies still operating legacy business lines so that they will soon be paying double the rental cost compared to last year.

"The PSTN analog network is obsolete, becoming harder to maintain and significantly more expensive to run," Lilley declared in February.

"We are passing those costs on to providers who continue to sell legacy products. If your business is still on this copper service, you will start to pay a premium for a service that will be switched off," he added.

Consumers can check Openreach's online postcode checker to see if full fiber is available where you live. ®