Comms Business Magazine (CBM): Why was the multi-dwelling unit (MDU) formed?
Abigail Kershaw (AK): Openreach launched a new exchange exit MDU enablement team in May last year. The London based unit is focused on MDUs that are served by exchanges that have been earmarked for closure as part of the migration of analogue services to new digital alternatives, under Openreach’s exchange closure programme.
In December 2020, we began to discuss the long-term handover architecture of the Openreach network with our communications provider (CP) customers. We highlighted the opportunity for Openreach to exit exchanges that will no longer be needed to support fibre to the premises (FTTP), fibre to the cabinet or Ethernet services. We set out to exit 105 exchange buildings by December 2030, and a majority of the remaining 4,500 non-handover exchanges in the early 2030s.
Exchange exit requires all copper customers to move onto a fibre Internet protocol (IP) product by the time we close the exchange. This includes customers who are not impacted by all-IP and customers who move onto a copper IP product for all-IP. The first exchanges will close on 1 April 2028 and all 105 exchanges will close by December 2030.
The five-strong MDU unit’s main task is to find and approach managing agents and landlords to explain how the exchange closure will impact them and encourage them to give us access to their buildings so we can upgrade legacy services to digital ones.
Many landlords and owners of flats and apartments are not aware that their buildings could be impacted by the switching off of BT’s copper-based analogue line services by January 2027 and the migration to digital services.
Openreach can use our existing access rights to access communal areas in flats to repair the copper network, but we cannot use those same rights to upgrade these premises to full fibre technology. Instead, we have to seek permission from landlords or property owners for permission to access their buildings.
Without being able to access these buildings residents are at risk of missing out on upgrades to faster, more reliable broadband. Many of these MDUs have communication systems, including security and lift alarm systems, door entry systems, intercoms and other critical devices, which may not work properly or cease working, if they’re not upgraded.
CBM: How does the unit’s work fit within Openreach’s PSTN switch-off strategy?
AK: Openreach’s exchange footprint is a legacy of the PSTN rollout. Openreach leases space in around 5,600 BT exchanges to provide services to CPs, and CPs can interconnect at any of these exchanges to pick up traffic.
But the recent growth in digital fibre-based services means that we’re able to provide fibre broadband services to the entire country from 1,000 super digital exchanges or Openreach Handover Points.
Sadly, this spells the beginning of the end for the remaining 4,600 exchanges used to support copper-based phone and broadband voice services. Most are also used to provide Ethernet or other leased line services.
Openreach is consulting with its CP customers about how to close these legacy exchanges over the next decade or so.
This will be a major undertaking with several million services to be migrated, and the importance of ensuring vulnerable customers and the UK’s Critical National Infrastructure providers are protected. The 18 exchanges the MDU team are focused on will be closed by 2030.
CBM: How do you raise awareness of the need to switchover to all-IP?
AK: We engage directly with landlords and property agents to discuss what needs to happen and why. We explain that switching to full fibre is about future-proofing properties to meet the growing technological demands of residents and maintaining a competitive edge.
An important part of our work is to make them aware that, even if they have Ethernet or full fibre from an alternative provider, they may still have important services running off copper.
What they don’t realise is that many of these ancillary services will need to be replaced with digitally compatible ones or they may not work properly or stop working altogether once the PSTN is switched off.
CBM: What progress has been made so far?
AK: This year we have provided FTTP to more than 500 MDUs in these exchanges and we expect to see these volumes grow substantially in the coming months and years. Across the 18 HDL exchanges there is around 70,000 total homes passed, of which around 4,500 total homes passed has been delivered this year.
In terms of customers, there are 133,000 circuits that need to be migrated onto FTTP or single order generic Ethernet access once the build is complete.
CBM: What have been the biggest challenges the unit has had to overcome to date?
AK: Many commercial buildings we target have Ethernet, but the same properties often still rely on the old copper network for essential ancillary services. People believe that because they have fibre into their building everything is working off that digital service, so they won’t be impacted by the switch-off.
Another obstacle is convincing people you’re not trying to sell them a service and that we just need access to the building so we can upgrade the existing infrastructure to digital full fibre. They’re quite surprised when we tell them that we’re a wholesale provider and the upgrade won’t cost anything.
This article was included in our February 2025 print issue. You can read the magazine in full here.