The UK’s Communication Network:
A Revolution is coming
Are you prepared to navigate this change?
80% of UK telephone exchanges to close
In December 2020 Openreach announced they will exit over 4,500 exchanges by mid 2030. That means 80% of UK exchanges will close over the next decade.
Openreach see an opportunity to consolidate infrastructure, reduce energy consumption and increase efficiency, as the transition to fibre means less exchanges are needed to support FTTP, FTTC or Ethernet services.
The current Openreach ambition is to exit 108 exchange buildings by December 2030, and a large majority of the remaining 4,500 exchanges in the early 2030s. The long-run strategy is to serve all customers from only 960 Openreach Handover Point (OHP) exchanges.
This change comes hard on the heels of the more well-known closure of the legacy PSTN, now scheduled for 2027.
A decade of continuous migration
Unlike the PSTN closure, Exchange Exit is not a straightforward migration from one product to another. Instead, as an exchange is scheduled to close, all products (and customers) in that exchange area must be migrated.
This will mean migrating all copper-based products (WLR, MPF/SMPF and FTTC/Gfast) to a new fibre-based product. All other products must also migrate from the closing exchange to the new designated Openreach receive site (OHP) even if there is not a change of product type.
Contrary to previous network transformations the change happens on an exchange-by-exchange basis over nearly a decade. Every single exchange of the 4,500 Exchange Exits has its own four-year exit programme. The geographic dimension adds a new layer of complexity on top of the existing demands of growth, transformation, service performance and network resilience.
Impact beyond Communication Providers
It is tempting to think that Exchange Exit is a problem for only Openreach and the UK Communication Providers (CP) but the impact goes far beyond them:
- Consumers & Small Businesses – many will need to migrate their existing copper-based product to a new fibre service. Whilst managed by their CP but with a need for consideration for special requirements e.g. vulnerable customers
- Large Businesses – many with complex national networks using System Integrators (SI)/Managed Network Services (MNS) providers who may also use multiple CPs.
- Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) entities – complex and resilient network needs that may be served by multiple providers with requirements for high availability and diversity across complex sites
- Communication Providers (CP) – with needs to manage Exchange Exit mass migration whilst still managing the day-to-day demand for growth and service assurance.
Successful migration = knowledge, planning & skills
The Acuity Insight Network is a collective of experienced industry specialists with decades of telecoms experience and deep knowledge of Openreach products, processes and network architecture. We don’t just talk about what’s happening, we have the experience to make it happen. Let us guide you through the complexities and demands of the Openreach Exchange Exit programme:
- Strategic planning
- Migration planning & process development
- Project management, resource planning and scheduling
- Data governance and data quality management
- Managing complex solutions and multi-CP environments
- Revenue, cost impact and contract management.
We can deploy the right resources to help you plan your Exchange Exit programme, and ultimately to build a complete end-to-end team or supplement your existing teams with the right skills.