What are the impacts of BT's decision to retire the copper wire network?

Since the inception of the telephone and home internet, copper wire has done its fair share of heavy lifting to make sure we are all connected.

From that jarring dial-up noise in the 90’s, often accompanied by the sounds of annoyance from whoever was just disconnected, to keeping our national infrastructure running, it has been a reliable constant in our lives. 

However, the old reliable is starting to show its age and maintaining the copper infrastructure is proving challenging. BT Group, which operates and maintains the copper wire infrastructure via Openreach, has made the decision to retire the copper network, known as the public switched telephone network. Increasingly new and improving digital services have changed the way that we communicate with each other, with services such as Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoiP) allowing us to make voice calls over internet connections.  

When we use applications such as WhatsApp, iMessage and MS Teams these are all carried by our internet connections via VoiP. These days it is only our telephones and broadband that are directly connected to the copper network and even then, some parts of the UK have already made the switch over to digital fibre optic lines. Openreach have already called a halt to the selling of copper networks to telecoms providers, and a phased approach to stop selling copper broadband and telephone products to consumers is also now in place.  

It's a weird one to think about in the sense of, 'how will this impact me?' In all honesty, I had never heard of this change prior to working at Citizens Advice Scotland (CAS) and initially it had me thoroughly confused as to any consequences. While overall it should result in more reliable and robust connectivity, there are some significant implications for people throughout the UK. We understand that many people’s telecare and property alarms are connected via the old copper network and the new VoiP technology will not stay connected during a power outage, whereas the old copper network would have stayed connected.  

When we began to understand these issues and how they would impact on consumers in Scotland, we commenced a lot of advocacy work to ensure that consumers are protected during this migration. We raised concerns regarding how power outages for rural and island communities in Scotland can take a while to be resolved and contingencies would be needed to ensure people remain connected.  

We’ve been making arguments to this effect for some time now and we are really relieved to see that Openreach has put a pause on completing the migration process until 2027. The original 2025 timescale, we felt, was too ambitious and would leave many people in the dark if questions around power outages and telecare went unanswered. We do hope that providers use this time to understand how to communicate these changes to their customers and how this may (or may not) impact them.  

Fundamentally our communications network has been a pillar of our day to day lives and it is strange how a phone call can change your day, or an email can change your life. At CAS, we know how essential communication services are and we will continue to stand up for consumers' rights to have access to them.

Kyle Scott is manager of the Strong Communities team at  Citizens Advice Scotland.

This column was first published in the Herald.