BT Copper to Fibre

[Lucan]

Maybe I'm being dense, but can anyone explain to me what BT will do, physically around my house, when the changeover from analogue to digital phones "by 2025"? The BT website is too vague and hyped to make anything clear, but from the Telecoms World website for example :-

By the year 2025, BT Openreach plan to shut down the ageing Copper Wire Telephone Network and replace it with a Fibre Optic Broadband Network.
.... Fibre Connectivity transmits data quicker, has fewer reliability issues
..... The rollout of Fibre Optic Broadband has taken longer than anticipated, but BT Openreach has announced that Copper will be phased out altogether by 2025.

It seems to me that in much of the available information several things are being confused and conflated : Fibre-versus-Copper, Analog-versus-Digital, and Voice-versus-Data.

Yes, I get it that everyone (I mean everyone who still needs a landline service) will need a router for VOIP; I already have one but I guess it may need changing. I also get it that fibre is faster than copper, athough its reliabilty will be no better than my present copper unless they re-route it away from the trees that keep breaking the lines, or put it underground (I wish).

However, sorry, I cannot see that copper is going to be replaced by fibre everywhere by 2025. I live in rural Wales and in my county alone there must be thousands of miles of overhead copper line on tens (or hundreds?) of thousands of poles, a significant portion of them decrepit and with trees grown around them. The Open Reach guys are always repairing lines around here, and often need chainsaws on the surrounding greenery just to get their ladders up the poles. My line along the road (there are four poles just for me) has needed repairing several times and each is a significant project that takes about a week, with temporary traffic lights, tree surgeon contractors, cherry-pickers, typically 4-6 vehicles and ten men : that is just for a short circuit in the cable.

Yet with just over a year to go "by 2025" there is no sign of any work up poles or of trenching for underground cables. The latter would need wayleaves and no other property owners I know around here have seen any applications for them. So does anyone know what will really happen?

 

[Paul Kelly]

I think the key thing is that they will switch off the equipment at the exchange that supports "Plain Old Telephone Service". Unlikely you would see anything around your house.

 

[sor]

It's not the same thing - and the article is wrong. "copper" is not being phased out by 2025.

Openreach has an aspiration to roll out fibre to the home to virtually everyone by 2030 or so. This needs physical work that you say you aren't yet seeing.

Openreach is also closing its legacy telephone network, sometimes called the PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network). This is the 2025 deadline. The clock started ticking a couple of weeks ago where they stopped selling new PSTN services. It is up to Openreach's customers, providers like BT, to move you onto a new VoIP based landline service, or simply switch off phone service altogether if you no longer want it. This doesn't need any physical work. For most people the existing internet connection - however it is delivered - will also handle the landline service too. If you can't yet get fibre to the home, this will be your copper based service.

If your internet connection is actually with BT, this would involve them sending you a new router if you need one, and then on the appointed date you'd plug your phone into the back of this instead of the wall. You could also buy new cordless handsets that work directly with the router. Other ISPs will have to come up with similar systems and organise the switchover for their customers.

Even before the enforced "stop sell", BT has been steering towards its new service (called "digital voice") for some time. If you recontract they used to ask if you wanted to move - now it probably won't be a choice.

The other major custodian of PSTN services - Virgin - is working to a similar timetable though it has no dependence on Openreach. Same deal - you plug your phone into the back of the router and (hopefully) away you go.

Regarding fibre reliability - the cable can be armoured (though I don't know if Openreach's stuff is), and is much harder to break or cause a service affecting failure. There are types that you can use as a skipping rope or knot practice while still passing light perfectly well. The main complaint is that you will lose service if you lose power, but then that's true for all the people who use cordless phones on their "reliable" copper landline today.

 

[GusB]

One thing that you need to be aware of is that if you have any extensions wired from your master socket, they will stop working. I only found this out after I'd switched to Digital Voice (and after I'd refused BT's offer of two free wireless handsets because I didn't think I'd need them). They didn't seem to think it was a big deal and had made the assumption that everyone used cordless phones these days. The early rollout was clumsy and not enough information was provided by the people who were trying to sell Digital Voice.

 

[sor]

Openreach did come up with a solution for that involving a new master socket plate, but it doesn't seem to have surfaced outside of pictures on various official documents. Perhaps the providers considered it to be too much faff? There are "DIY" approaches but only really for those who know what they are doing (and are absolutely 100% sure it's not still connected to the outside line)

BT themselves have a "digital voice adapter" which plugs into the mains and has a phone socket on it, and connects wirelessly back to their smart hub.

 

[Paul Kelly]

One thing that you need to be aware of is that if you have any extensions wired from your master socket, they will stop working.

You can connect the extension wiring into the VOIP router and then they will work again - this video explains it quite well

 

[RichJF]

From Plusnet (my provider) on the phase out of traditional landlines.

 

[SteveP29]

It's not the same thing - and the article is wrong. "copper" is not being phased out by 2025.

Openreach has an aspiration to roll out fibre to the home to virtually everyone by 2030 or so. This needs physical work that you say you aren't yet seeing.

Openreach is also closing its legacy telephone network, sometimes called the PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network). This is the 2025 deadline. The clock started ticking a couple of weeks ago where they stopped selling new PSTN services. It is up to Openreach's customers, providers like BT, to move you onto a new VoIP based landline service, or simply switch off phone service altogether if you no longer want it. This doesn't need any physical work. For most people the existing internet connection - however it is delivered - will also handle the landline service too. If you can't yet get fibre to the home, this will be your copper based service.

If your internet connection is actually with BT, this would involve them sending you a new router if you need one, and then on the appointed date you'd plug your phone into the back of this instead of the wall. You could also buy new cordless handsets that work directly with the router. Other ISPs will have to come up with similar systems and organise the switchover for their customers.

Even before the enforced "stop sell", BT has been steering towards its new service (called "digital voice") for some time. If you recontract they used to ask if you wanted to move - now it probably won't be a choice.

The other major custodian of PSTN services - Virgin - is working to a similar timetable though it has no dependence on Openreach. Same deal - you plug your phone into the back of the router and (hopefully) away you go.

Regarding fibre reliability - the cable can be armoured (though I don't know if Openreach's stuff is), and is much harder to break or cause a service affecting failure. There are types that you can use as a skipping rope or knot practice while still passing light perfectly well. The main complaint is that you will lose service if you lose power, but then that's true for all the people who use cordless phones on their "reliable" copper landline today.

OK, so that prompts a question from me.

I still lived with my parents when I decided we should probably have an internet connection in the house.
This was back in the days of dial up.
As my parents were often active on the telephone to friends and family evenings and weekends, I didn't want to be prevented from being online while they were on the phone and vice versa (although I remember an incoming call would disconnect the internet)

So what I did was to get BT to install another line into our house (a 2 bedroom semi detached bungalow)
I paid for the installation and paid the costs of being connected to the net.
The router is in 'my' bedroom.
Nothing changed when I switched to broadband and it didn't when I moved out.

My parents still use their landline (mother won't have a mobile), so how will their landline connect to the router in the bedroom, will they be given a wifi box or something or will it need a wired connection from the handset/ base unit to the router?
They're both in their 70s and technology is confusing to my dad at the best of times even though he can work facebook and surf the net.

 

[Trackman]

I think the key thing is that they will switch off the equipment at the exchange that supports "Plain Old Telephone Service". Unlikely you would see anything around your house.

Yes, we've had a thread about this before.
The box in my street has already been converted.

 

[sor]

OK, so that prompts a question from me.

I still lived with my parents when I decided we should probably have an internet connection in the house.
This was back in the days of dial up.
As my parents were often active on the telephone to friends and family evenings and weekends, I didn't want to be prevented from being online while they were on the phone and vice versa (although I remember an incoming call would disconnect the internet)

So what I did was to get BT to install another line into our house (a 2 bedroom semi detached bungalow)
I paid for the installation and paid the costs of being connected to the net.
The router is in 'my' bedroom.
Nothing changed when I switched to broadband and it didn't when I moved out.

My parents still use their landline (mother won't have a mobile), so how will their landline connect to the router in the bedroom, will they be given a wifi box or something or will it need a wired connection from the handset/ base unit to the router?
They're both in their 70s and technology is confusing to my dad at the best of times even though he can work facebook and surf the net.

So they have their phone number on one line, and broadband on the line you had installed?

(assuming this is a BT landline) I think "landline only" customers are an area that BT has yet to clarify, the emphasis from their press releases is that they're doing the easy customers first. The easiest thing for BT to do would be to upgrade your parents to broadband at no extra cost, but we shall see. If they did, they'd get a new router to plug into that line and then they would either plug their existing phone into that or use BT's new cordless handsets.

 

[GusB]

You can connect the extension wiring into the VOIP router and then they will work again - this video explains it quite well

I was aware that it's possible to do this, and I appreciate that you're trying to be helpful, but this isn't the sort of job that your average customer should be expected to do. My argument with BT was that they should have thought this all through beforehand and, if necessary, send an engineer out to sort this out.

In the end they supplied me with an adapter that I could plug my wired phone into, as well as the two cordless phones they'd originally offered, but I wasn't made aware of the existence of the adapter at the start. They really should have asked from the outset if there were any wired phones in the house. Let's not forget that many of the early extension installations were actually carried out by BT, so they really should be taking more responsibility.

Thanks for the link, by the way. I'd forgotten all about Vince's channel and he does have some useful videos there.

 

[SteveP29]

So they have their phone number on one line, and broadband on the line you had installed?

Yes, that's right.

That does seem a sensible solution.
They have their landline with Sky btw (cheapest) so I don't know what implications that'll have.

 

[sor]

that changes it a bit. Sky use their own equipment in the telephone exchange and aren't bound to the same deadline as Openreach's customers are, but no one really intends to keep this stuff going for much longer. It's important to clarify that "BT" means anyone who actually pays their bills to BT, not everyone who uses an Openreach line of some sort. Sky and TalkTalk use Openreach's copper lines (2030? maybe sooner if fibre to the home is available to you) but not their PSTN equipment (2025)

It is Sky who will need to sort out a solution for your parents then. Their version of it is called "internet calls" - https://www.sky.com/help/articles/about-internet-calls - but the basic idea will be the same

A clumsy rail analogy - Openreach are Network Rail and BT/Sky/TalkTalk etc are the TOCs, except that for historical reasons Openreach sometimes own the train and also hire the train crew, but they don't brand the trains or sell tickets to passengers. They now want to move solely to track and signals on their shiny new high speed network, and let the TOCs do everything else.

 

[Ken X]

I can't speak for other areas but it's getting quite busy in darkest Horsham. All the poles in our area are now labelled "beware overhead fibre" and we have had first Vodafone and then Virgin turning our pavements into a patchwork quilt. I see some houses now have a BT line, a Vodafone socket and a Virgin socket outside. There are also BT, Vodafone and Virgin cabinets scattered everywhere. I'm no expert but I am struggling to work out how having three different networks (and counting) is ever going to be cost effective. Interesting times.

 

[MarlowDonkey]

The easiest thing for BT to do would be to upgrade your parents to broadband at no extra cost, but we shall see. If they did, they'd get a new router to plug into that line and then they would either plug their existing phone into that or use BT's new cordless handsets.

I thimk that's what they intend. The existing master socket would be replaced by a gadget with a socket to plug in an existing phone or phones. The gadget would be a router of some sort. If there is already a router plugged into the master socket through a filter, presumably the wiring can be simplified by plugging the phone into the router, assuming the router has a suitable socket.

I was aware this upgrade was happening when purchasing a four phone package from BT in the relatively recent past. I don't think the existing phones become redundant.

What will be withdrawn is the facility to dial out during a power cut. That is unless they are intending to supply some form of UPS. Otherwise everyone, however vulnerable, is going to have to rely on having a charged mobile phone for such circumstances.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Numerically speaking, how many people of pensionable age could be unable to fully comprehend the changeover requirements of this new system. Some BT customers of that age range still have landlines only with a couple of extension phone. My current BT package of phone and internet allows one free engineer visit per year, so I wonder if a BT engineer could do all the work required when the system is about to change. I am 78 years of age.

 

[Ediswan]

What will be withdrawn is the facility to dial out during a power cut. That is unless they are intending to supply some form of UPS. Otherwise everyone, however vulnerable, is going to have to rely on having a charged mobile phone for such circumstances.

There is the option to supply your own UPS. However, if the power cut also affects the local cabinet, your service would be limited by the UPS there (4-12 hours according to some reports).

 

[Red Onion]

It’ll be interesting to see how many of the remaining payphones will survive this as I imagine most, if not all, will need upgraded.

 

[Energy]

The first step is WLR withdrawal, this is Openreach retiring their equipment at the other end of the line. It primarily affects BT, meanwhile Sky and TalkTalk have their own equipment though their switching to save costs.

As of this month, it is not possible to buy new WLR lines.



The second step is copper withdrawal, this is the physical copper cables from the PCP cabinet (within 100m of your house) and they will be retired around 2030. It affects all ISPs using these lines, including TalkTalk and Sky.

The copper lines from your home to the PCP and from the PCP to the FTTC cabinet are not affected, as such Superfast FTTC is not affected.


FTTP rollout is independent of this and the digital voice switchover can occur with only an ADSL or an FTTC line. Openreach have FTTP priority areas (where FTTP is available to 75+% of properties) where only FTTP products are sold where available, no copper of FTTC.

The other major custodian of PSTN services - Virgin - is working to a similar timetable though it has no dependence on Openreach. Same deal - you plug your phone into the back of the router and (hopefully) away you go.

Virgin have been VOIP (or at least through the hub, possibly a separate RF feed) for years. They have fewer voice-only lines so are less affected. The rest of your post is excellent .

Openreach did come up with a solution for that involving a new master socket plate, but it doesn't seem to have surfaced outside of pictures on various official documents

Yes they had a voice reinjection plate. Cordless phones are so cheap nowadays its easier for ISPs to give them away than fuss with the voice reinjection support nightmare.

My parents still use their landline (mother won't have a mobile), so how will their landline connect to the router in the bedroom, will they be given a wifi box or something or will it need a wired connection from the handset/ base unit to the router?

Both copper lines can have an internet connection, your ISP should be able to connect to the other line and the router can be put downstairs.

Yes, we've had a thread about this before.
The box in my street has already been converted.

Your street will already have FTTC, the stop sell on new WLR lines (landlines with Openreach equipment on the other end, primarily BT customers) has already happened and affects the entire country.

Numerically speaking, how many people of pensionable age could be unable to fully comprehend the changeover requirements of this new system. Some BT customers of that age range still have landlines only with a couple of extension phone. My current BT package of phone and internet allows one free engineer visit per year, so I wonder if a BT engineer could do all the work required when the system is about to change. I am 78 years of age.

A BT engineer is likely able to sort this for you (depending on whether they send out Openreach or BT).

Since your posting on here I imagine you have internet so connecting your primary landline phone is just plugging it into the BT style phone port on the back of the router.

If you have extensions you can either look into voice reinjection (an Openreach engineer CAN sort this for you) or switch to cordless phones.

Whether BT send an engineer out or send you some cordless phones to plug in will depend on who you get through to at BT.

Sky and TalkTalk use Openreach's copper lines (2030? maybe sooner if fibre to the home is available to you

Yes if your exchange is FTTP priority (FTTP available to 75+% of properties in that area) then only FTTP products can be ordered.

I can't speak for other areas but it's getting quite busy in darkest Horsham. All the poles in our area are now labelled "beware overhead fibre" and we have had first Vodafone and then Virgin turning our pavements into a patchwork quilt. I see some houses now have a BT line, a Vodafone socket and a Virgin socket outside. There are also BT, Vodafone and Virgin cabinets scattered everywhere.

Vodafone isn't deploying, a company called CityFibre are and Vodafone use their network.

New Virgin Media cabinets (new areas and existing areas being upgraded to FTTP) look like this:

Older Virgin FTTP cabinets (though typically light grey) and new Cityfibre cabinets look like this:

Openreach FTTP is cabinet-less in 99% of places, their FTTC cabinets are well documented online.

I'm no expert but I am struggling to work out how having three different networks (and counting) is ever going to be cost effective. Interesting times.

Short answer, CityFibre currently don't make money. Few of these new altnets do.

 

[Snow1964]

So what I did was to get BT to install another line into our house (a 2 bedroom semi detached bungalow)
I paid for the installation and paid the costs of being connected to the net.
The router is in 'my' bedroom.
Nothing changed when I switched to broadband and it didn't when I moved out.

There are lot of old legacy wiring. Our previous house we had bought 2003, had 2 phone circuits because previous owners ran an office so had second line. Only one was live for us.

At some stage the cables in street had been changed to underground and we had a 6 or 8 core cable that had been laid under the drive to a junction box, there was still evidence of old cables to one of those brackets by the gutter.

Later we had fibre to the cabinet, a box on street corner next to old cast iron style cabinet.

The people who moved into our old house in 2003 had their number moved (they had only moved few streets) but couldn't get the phones to work, we had broadband, they didn't, but we had taken the plug in filters and BT didn't switch the broadband connection off. Just shows what muddle BT can be when things change. BT took days to realise they hadn't bypassed broadband when they moved the new peoples number.

 

[Ken X]

Vodafone isn't deploying, a company called CityFibre are and Vodafone use their network.

New Virgin Media cabinets (new areas and existing areas being upgraded to FTTP) look like this:

Older Virgin FTTP cabinets (though typically light grey) and new Cityfibre cabinets look like this:

Openreach FTTP is cabinet-less in 99% of places, their FTTC cabinets are well documented online.


Short answer, CityFibre currently don't make money. Few of these new altnets do.

Many thanks for the comprehensive post As you say Cityfibre put in the fibre Vodafone are using. I got the impression from the guys digging up our road that they were subbing for Vodafone but it seems not.
The boxes are getting so numerous they must be running out of room..

It comes as no surprise that Cityfibre are not profitable. The work is spectacularly disjointed. They must have dug up a nearby road at least six times and have been pratting about over eighteen months now. Always doing a bit, vanishing,coming back, doing a bit more etc.

Virgin are no better. Turned up outside our house at 16:00, dug one hole, finished at 19:00. Back in the morning to retarmac at 07:00, gone by ,08:00. Numerous small works in different locations rather than sweep through a road and sort in one flowing operation.

We watch with interest.

 

[87 027]

Perhaps it's just me but are we overcomplicating things? I upgraded to BT digital voice last year - my house has a cordless phone with 5 handsets and plugging the base station into the new router rather than the traditional BT linebox works just fine. This is in addition to the BT-supplied handset which connects via WiFi so there are 6 extensions in total.

I know there is some disquiet about 999 calls. However under the Emergency Services Mobile Communication Programme, government is intending to retire the existing dedicated radio network used by fire, police and ambulance (Airwave) and replace it with handsets connected to EE's public 4G mobile network, although with tweaks to ensure their calls get priority over the ordinary public when required. So if the mobile network goes down in a power cut, the control room won't be able to communicate with the services on the front line either, and I find it hard to believe that there won't be resilience to mitigate against this.

 

[sor]

I thimk that's what they intend. The existing master socket would be replaced by a gadget with a socket to plug in an existing phone or phones. The gadget would be a router of some sort. If there is already a router plugged into the master socket through a filter, presumably the wiring can be simplified by plugging the phone into the router, assuming the router has a suitable socket.

I was aware this upgrade was happening when purchasing a four phone package from BT in the relatively recent past. I don't think the existing phones become redundant.

What will be withdrawn is the facility to dial out during a power cut. That is unless they are intending to supply some form of UPS. Otherwise everyone, however vulnerable, is going to have to rely on having a charged mobile phone for such circumstances.

It would make sense to reuse the router rather than build a new device solely for landline only customers.

Your phone will be usable, all of the various routers supplied by the ISPs will have phone sockets on the back. BT would prefer you used their shiny new handsets but this is not essential.

As for the UPS - BT says they do provide something to vulnerable customers, everyone else can choose to self provide backup power if they want. Other ISPs may or may not do the same. I gather BT have (following criticism) also begun to supply a so called hybrid landline phone that has a battery of its own & can use EE's mobile network if the landline is down.

Numerically speaking, how many people of pensionable age could be unable to fully comprehend the changeover requirements of this new system. Some BT customers of that age range still have landlines only with a couple of extension phone. My current BT package of phone and internet allows one free engineer visit per year, so I wonder if a BT engineer could do all the work required when the system is about to change. I am 78 years of age.

I believe this is another of the changes they've made following criticism. They will have to provide assistance to those who need it.

Virgin have been VOIP (or at least through the hub, possibly a separate RF feed) for years. They have fewer voice-only lines so are less affected. The rest of your post is excellent .

I was thinking more from the perspective of existing users. BT has had DV for a few years too, but have been reluctant to move people over forcibly

Yes, it's VoIP (a variant called PacketCable), but it's also separated from internet traffic. The BT version isn't separated but QoS would be used to ensure it works just as well.

Openreach FTTP is cabinet-less in 99% of places, their FTTC cabinets are well documented online.

This is another nice thing about Openreach - no need for cabinets, and especially no powered ones for FTTP. Trooli are in my area and they have a very large powered cabinet, presumably containing the gear that Openreach can keep at the exchange. It also means that it has a far more resilient power supply. If you can keep your end up, you'll have service, there's nothing in the street that needs power.

In some areas (I think where all cabling is overhead?) they do use pole mounted "lumps" to house some of the equipment that would go underground, but otherwise it'll be (long term) visually unintrusive, no different to copper.

Short answer, CityFibre currently don't make money. Few of these new altnets do.

And CF are building in my area too, so we have three FTTP options. I suspect they'll be waiting a while for their ROI, given that Openreach seem to already have the lions share of the business based on the new boxes on people's houses.

Feels a bit pre "grouping", to borrow another rail analogy. There will have to be mass consolidation at some point. CityFibre will likely be one of the survivors.

 

[Energy]

Yes, it's VoIP (a variant called PacketCable), but it's also separated from internet traffic. The BT version isn't separated but QoS would be used to ensure it works just as well.

Makes sense, QoS would be easy to set voice as priority.

This is another nice thing about Openreach - no need for cabinets, and especially no powered ones for FTTP. Trooli are in my area and they have a very large powered cabinet, presumably containing the gear that Openreach can keep at the exchange. It also means that it has a far more resilient power supply. If you can keep your end up, you'll have service, there's nothing in the street that needs power.

Trooli cabinets contain the OLT and usually a switch for backhaul, Openreach typically has these within the exchange though with subtended head end you occasionally find remote ones (this is very rare)

In some areas (I think where all cabling is overhead?) they do use pole mounted "lumps" to house some of the equipment that would go underground, but otherwise it'll be (long term) visually unintrusive, no different to copper.

You might be referring to the Fibre CBTs, they are completely passive and have 4, 8 or 12 weatherised fibre ports and the corresponding number of fibres in, they are just terminals with no active components or passive PON splitters.

These can be either at the top of poles or mounted underground.

And CF are building in my area too, so we have three FTTP options. I suspect they'll be waiting a while for their ROI, given that Openreach seem to already have the lions share of the business based on the new boxes on people's houses.

Yes, many altnets perceived it as them vs. BT rather than them vs all of Openreach's CPs. Some were seriously suggesting Openreach + Virgin Media + 2 altnets seriously thinking that each would get 25%, which is borderline profitable.

 

[Paul Kelly]

but this isn't the sort of job that your average customer should be expected to do.

Oh I agree totally. My Mum had a new fibre line installed and was simply told her old phone extensions would not work any more. I got them working with the help of that video but was quite shocked at the misinformation that is being given out that it's not possible.

 

[Devonian]

It’ll be interesting to see how many of the remaining payphones will survive this as I imagine most, if not all, will need upgraded.

Payphones, which still host millions of calls each year, will indeed need to be upgraded. Many are protected to a certain degree for various reasons, including areas of high risk of accident and suicide: about 5,000 of the 20,000 remaining boxes are 'protected' by Ofcom and 1,400 of those are in areas with no mobile signal. Ofcom have specifically introduced a new Universal Service condition for BT to ensure "uninterrupted access to calls to Emergency Organisations as part of the provision of the Public Call Boxes" which is expected to be at least three hours of battery back-up for emergency calls only. Not all payphones will have battery back-up, depending on expected need and proximity of other payphones with backup.

I note that my nearest payphone has recently had new equipment cabinets installed as part of a comprehensive refurbishment, hopefully to allow the extra kit to be installed.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Will those phones in supermarkets that are free to use by customers to contact the taxi firm directly without dialling just by picking up the phone need special arrangements?

 

[Devonian]

Will those phones in supermarkets that are free to use by customers to contact the taxi firm directly without dialling just by picking up the phone need special arrangements?

If they use dedicated PSTN phone lines, they would need to be updated. However, they might already be connected through the mobile networks, or VOIP or even run through the premises own switchboard.

 

[Markdvdman]

I am on FTTP Gigafast with Sky. The phone plugs into the router, keeping the same number and VOIP. Mind you I never use it but as line rental is no longer the case - I can live with the £43 a month I am paying for a brilliantly fast service! If you really must use landline phones sky caters for it easily - and multiple phones will work off it as the other cordless phone does too.

 

[sor]

You might be referring to the Fibre CBTs, they are completely passive and have 4, 8 or 12 weatherised fibre ports and the corresponding number of fibres in, they are just terminals with no active components or passive PON splitters.

These can be either at the top of poles or mounted underground.

Nah, it's the thing listed as a splitter here - https://www.thinkbroadband.com/news/6078-race-to-infinity-some-not-completed-yet - arguably not the best picture but google is failing me. I've seen a few of them in Cornwall in ultra rural areas where fibre is likely all overhead.

Yes, many altnets perceived it as them vs. BT rather than them vs all of Openreach's CPs. Some were seriously suggesting Openreach + Virgin Media + 2 altnets seriously thinking that each would get 25%, which is borderline profitable.

and the assumption that Ofcom would follow history and prevent Openreach from fair competition and give altnets an edge. Hasn't worked out that way though.

Payphones, which still host millions of calls each year, will indeed need to be upgraded. Many are protected to a certain degree for various reasons, including areas of high risk of accident and suicide: about 5,000 of the 20,000 remaining boxes are 'protected' by Ofcom and 1,400 of those are in areas with no mobile signal. Ofcom have specifically introduced a new Universal Service condition for BT to ensure "uninterrupted access to calls to Emergency Organisations as part of the provision of the Public Call Boxes" which is expected to be at least three hours of battery back-up for emergency calls only. Not all payphones will have battery back-up, depending on expected need and proximity of other payphones with backup.

I note that my nearest payphone has recently had new equipment cabinets installed as part of a comprehensive refurbishment, hopefully to allow the extra kit to be installed.

I would also speculate that BT just makes the remaining payphones free to use at some point, due to the methods used by those payphones to accurately charge for calls not being available in the VoIP world (at least, not without significant and unjustified effort). Telstra did this in Australia - all calls to Australian numbers became free of charge. I believe BT's newer ones (really just an excuse to have more advertising boards) actually are free to use for UK calls. I'm unsure of the cabinets you mention, the equipment needed to convert a payphone is not that big and could likely easily fit in the space under the phone. There aren't any payphones near me so I can't go and see what they may be doing...