So far 800 homes and businesses have upgraded to the full-fibre service, said Openreach, which provides wholesale connections to a number of retail telecoms companies.
But the company is also phasing out copper connections from later in 2020, announced CEO Clive Selley. “From December if you live in the city of Salisbury and want to change your broadband, you’ll have to upgrade to full fibre as we start to move closer to a digital world,” he said.
“It makes no sense to run two networks side-by-side, so we’re planning to retire the old, analogue network entirely.”
Salisbury has been Openreach’s flagship pilot site for developing and testing ways to upgrade to a new all-digital fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) service – where voice calls are carried over the same fibre as broadband.
The company says that it plans to phase out entirely the traditional copper network by the end of 2025. After than all landlines across the UK will be connected via internet protocol (IP) services.
In the city’s medieval centre, around the 13th-century cathedral, engineers were the first in the world to use new super small connectorised block terminals that discreetly connect fibre cables to people’s homes. The slimline units are designed to connect up to eight premises in one go, without having to erect new poles. They also blend in with surroundings, said Openreach, helping to preserve the character of Salisbury’s historic buildings. More than 200 have been deployed across the city centre, serving around 1,500 homes and businesses.
