A tale of two programmes

In the final instalment of this series of blogs we will pull together the threads from Openreach’s transformation to an All-IP apprach supported by the development of a Single Fibre Network (SFN), especially WLR Withdrawal, launch of EAD2 and Exchange Exit programme and discuss the impact of industry players beyond the Communications Providers (CPs). 

So why does the Openreach (OR) announcement of the withdrawal of WLR in December 2025 – now January 2027 and its Exchange Exit programme that runs in parallel mean significant, often unexpected, costly disruption & change to end customers business services?

UK Business Communications

For the past two decades, UK businesses have benefited from a diverse portfolio of fixed access lines provided by Openreach, including copper, leased lines, Ethernet, and Optical Spectrum Access (OSA). These services have been available on a national scale. Additionally, providers such as Virgin and emerging Alternative Networks (Altnets) have been offering fibre and Ethernet services on regional or semi-national bases.

While Altnets play a role in delivering business services, Openreach’s extensive national footprint means that many large national networks rely heavily on Openreach services. To ensure resilience, these networks often incorporate a mix of Openreach and other fixed or mobile provider services.

The Role of Network Aggregators

Network Aggregators play a vital role in securely connecting fixed line and mobile customer access services to the internet or via Layer 2 Network-to-Network Interfaces (NNIs) to customer or Systems Integrator (SI) data centres, or to the Internet via Layer 3. In many cases, businesses are increasingly relying on secure public or private cloud-based Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) models to deliver their services.

A national retail provider, for example, may have up to 1000+ different sized or branded sites across the UK, supported by key distribution and regional/head office locations. Other Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) sectors with extensive national networks include Central Government, Blue Light services, Health, Transport, and Logistics.

Network Aggregators generate revenue by aggregating the highest quality and most cost-effective network services for end customers’ IT groups or SIs. These aggregators carefully consider factors such as current and future bandwidth requirements, resilience, and commercial terms specified by the SI or their customer.

Systems Integrators and Service Delivery

Systems Integrators (SIs) leverage this aggregated network footprint to add the service and application layer, establishing medium to long-term service arrangements that often span 7-10 years. These arrangements typically include commitments to technology and network refreshes as part of the commercial agreement, governed by strict Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and Service Level Guarantees (SLGs).

Rolling out these services often involves complex project management, encompassing network infrastructure, IT infrastructure, applications, and training. This process can take 12-18 months to complete.

Using the Retail and Transportation lines of business as an example – many sites within these sectors have been able to meet their bandwidth requirements, typically ranging from 15-30 megabits per second, using copper-based connections at very competitively prices.

To address higher bandwidth needs or specific application requirements, these businesses have been able to supplement their copper connections with fibre or Ethernet services. Copper has provided a relatively easy and quick way to connect many sites, and Openreach’s extensive footprint has facilitated the timely delivery of Ethernet services with predictable pricing and lead times.

The impact of disruption

So why is the end of copper and Openreach’s All-IP and Exchange Exit programs going to cause so much disruption to the SI’s, Network Aggregators and their end customer national networks?

Quite simply because Openreach has an “Network Engineering Approach” to Exchange Exit. Exchange by exchange migration over many years is diametrically opposite to how an SI or end customer plan their network transformation.

Openreach is currently negotiating the migration process at the industry level. Initial indications suggest that:

• EAD Migration: EAD services will be migrated on an exchange-by-exchange basis. The number of engineering visits required per circuit will vary depending on the complexity of the exchange infrastructure.
• FTTP/x Migration: Multiple CP services will be migrated per PON slot, with the specific allocation to be determined.

Capacity planning lead times and end-user notice periods are being negotiated, along with processes for complex or Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) sites, including rollback or roll-forward options in case of migration issues.

Transforming an end-user site requires customer access and comprehensive program management across all service elements. A national program rollout can be costly and complex, involving third parties, the customer, and their sites. These sites often present logistical challenges, making delivery time-consuming and expensive.

Many end-user contracts were signed on a long-term basis, and SIs or end customers may not fully realize that migrating to All-IP services (from copper to fibre, SOGEA, or SOGFast) may necessitate additional site rollouts, Ethernet re-terminations with planned outages, or revised resilience plans for key sites.

Additionally, existing customer site technologies may not be compatible with new access technologies.

SI/Network Aggregator challenges

Once the migration strategies and timelines are agreed by the industry, SI’s and Network Aggregators will need to rapidly map their complex network customer networks against this and understand all the impacts – is the existing product fit for purpose, does resiliency need reviewing, does project management need providing, are the existing PEW, engineering support, monitoring and or incident processes fit for purpose and how are the existing commercial constructs affected – then they need to start the complex and time consuming contractual negotiations with the end customers who will in many cases be less than supportive due to the unexpected or poorly thought through impacts.

Therefore, thorough preparation and planning are essential to address these issues, including resurveying sites to assess space, power, LAN configurations, and the distribution of services across multiple CPs for resilience and commercial purposes. One particular challenge is the data associated with large networks is often fragmented across different systems and teams. This makes it hard to bring together in a coherent model where there is sufficient hardware, database and data engineering skills/scale to facilitate the what if/options planning,

There is a lot to do, and organisations need to start understanding the impacts quickly due to the ambitious Openreach timeline aspirations.

How we help

Acuity Insight has the industry experts and experience to help SIs and businesses navigate these challenges and help them how understand how to create and deliver a successful migration strategy often incorporating an IT/Network Transformation strategy in parallel.. 

Organisation who are already proactively migrating before the Openreach “cliff edge” stop sell dates are building business cases that help them to reduce costs and justify the migration, those who do it late in the day, with no real transformation strategy just see it as a problem/cost foisted on their already stressed businesses – forward planning against a well-developed transformation model is key.

Please contact us to agree a free and confidential discussion on how we can support you navigating this once in a lifetime change.