BT hangs up on new copper lines on its Openreach UK network

LONDON: Britain’s BT stopped selling new voice copper telephone lines on its Openreach national network after more than a century, marking a milestone in its journey to a full fibre digital network.

BT in 2017 signalled its intention to retire the copper-based public switched telephone network (PSTN) by the end of 2025.

“As part of this whole process, we’re now taking the significant step of ending the sale of new analogue services across the UK,” Openreach said in a blog post on Tuesday.

“That means from today, when customers sign up for a new contract – or when they switch, upgrade or re-grade their service via their provider – they’ll be moved onto a new digital line rather than an analogue one.”