London, May 11, 2026, 10:07 BST
Openreach has tacked on another 238 UK exchanges to its full-fibre “stop sell” programme, pushing more regions onto the roster where legacy copper broadband and phone services will hit fresh order restrictions. With the May 8 update, marked as Tranche 24, the FTTP Priority Exchange list climbs to 2,116 entries, according to Openreach’s document.
Why now? Britain’s shift away from copper has left the drawing board. The focus is switching to actually moving customers. The legacy Public Switched Telephone Network — PSTN, the analogue backbone of those familiar landlines — is set for shutdown by Jan. 31, 2027. Calls will be routed over broadband-based digital lines instead.
ISPreview says the latest tranche will hit around 1.69 million premises. Openreach’s timetable sets June 3, 2027 as the date for order restrictions on Tranche 24 areas—among them Farnsfield, Quorn, Sileby, Layton in Blackpool, Jarrow, Dudley, Wembley, and Norwich City.
A stop sell doesn’t mean services are cut off right away. According to Openreach, it simply halts new sales of specific products. Those already using them stay connected until the actual withdrawal date, following the broader migration schedule.
For FTTP Priority Exchanges, the rule kicks in strictly at locations with GEA-FTTP on offer. GEA-FTTP, Openreach’s wholesale fibre-to-the-premises product, delivers fibre right into the building, skipping the street cabinet entirely. Openreach states that once GEA-FTTP is in place, it’s the sole option for new supply at that address.
That ramps up the squeeze on firms like Sky, BT, TalkTalk and Vodafone—companies that buy Openreach lines—to push new sign-ups and upgrade requests toward digital services in areas already set up for fibre. “The immediate focus is getting people onto newer, future proofed technologies,” James Lilley, Openreach’s Managed Customer Migrations Director, said earlier this year. Openreach
Openreach, the BT Group unit, has accelerated its fibre buildout. By late April, the company reported its Full Fibre network now covers 22 million homes and businesses across the UK. The target: 25 million by the end of 2026. If the investment climate holds up, that could reach as high as 30 million by 2030.
It comes down to take-up. Back in February, BT reported that Openreach counted 8.2 million FTTP connections, with take-up running north of 38%. That still leaves a hefty slice of fibre-ready households either hanging onto legacy offerings or opting for competing networks.
Competition’s playing into the moment. Back in March, Ofcom pointed out that over half of eligible customers hadn’t made the jump to full fibre yet—despite around 75% of UK premises being covered by at least two broadband providers. Openreach, they said, still has substantial market power. The main challengers at scale? That’s Virgin Media O2-backed nexfibre and CityFibre. Smaller altnets are feeling financial pressure in this crowded field.
But there’s still room for things to go wrong. Digital voice services rely on a broadband router and local mains power—a sharp contrast to old-school landlines, which drew electricity straight from the exchange. That’s a problem for customers with telecare alarms, security systems, ATMs, or other devices hooked up to a phone line; they might need additional checks or hardware. According to the House of Commons Library, providers have agreed not to switch telecare users unless their devices are ready and to offer backup support beyond what Ofcom requires.
BT is ramping up its efforts to get remaining analogue customers to react when the company reaches out. “Customers can overlook provider messages, but doing so could disrupt essential connections,” said Lucy Baker, BT’s Consumer Digital Voice Director. BT Group Newsroom
Households face a straightforward issue: can they get Openreach full fibre, and does any equipment still rely on the old phone socket? For businesses, though, the stakes are higher—the timeline applies to things like lift lines, alarms, payment terminals, and older voice systems. Delaying action until the provider’s final notice could backfire if the setup calls for an engineer visit, new router, or finding a backup product.
