Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the resumption by BT of the rollout of Digital Voice, what assessment they have made of the (1) timing, and (2) nature, of communication of the copper switch off.

BT’s Digital Voice rollout relates to the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) migration. The PSTN is a privately-owned network and the upgrade to digital voice services is an industry-led process. Consumers will be migrated to digital voice services by 2025. We remain engaged with Communications Providers including BT to monitor their migration processes. We want to ensure that consumers including the most vulnerable are protected and prepared for the upgrade.

Copper switch off, or the retirement of fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) broadband services, is a separate process. Ofcom, the UK’s telecommunications regulator, will monitor and oversee the withdrawal of copper services. FTTC broadband services will continue to operate after the PSTN has been replaced.

In Volume Three of Ofcom’s Wholesale Fixed Telecoms Market Review 2021-26 (WFTMR), it set out some criteria by which it will allow Openreach to decommission the copper-based network in future, however Ofcom has also decided it is currently too early in the migration process to define the conditions that will trigger the complete deregulation of the copper network. Ofcom will set out further details on this process in the next market review period.