Digital switchover glossary

ALL IP refers to the telephony network in the UK being changed so that all services work over the Internet (IP or Internet Protocol). Today the UK network has a copper and fibre mix of lines and will continue to do so for many years to come. The original copper lines network and the associated telephone exchanges, were designed for voice calls. Today the Internet uses broadband technology to pass data over these lines at speeds that are determined by the makeup of these lines and as Fibre is a far better medium for transmitting large amounts of data quickly and the more fibre we can use, instead of copper, the better the service will be.

Openreach sell lines to Communications Providers (CPs) who then sell their product offering to the end customer (Homes and Businesses). CPs include over 650 companies including SKY, TalkTalk, BT Consumer, Daisy and Gamma.

By 2025, analogue telephone services accessed by the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) will be switched off as the UK’s telecoms infrastructure is upgraded to digital connectivity.  The switchover has implications for the telecare and TEC sector, and the 1.8 million people who rely on those services in the UK.  All traditional devices that connect to the PSTN, such as telephone handsets, ATM machines, traffic light management systems and telecare units, will need reconnecting, with some needing upgrading or replacing irrespective of what plans that telecare providers have to develop their service.

Traditionally premises have received their services over a copper line that runs from the local telephone exchange into green cabinets in the street and then on to a local distribution point like a telegraph pole. The copper line then enters the premises. FTTC or Fibre To The Cabinet, is a service that is already available to 95 per cent of the UK. It utilises the traditional copper telephone line from the premises to the green street cabinet. However, at the cabinet, the broadband/Internet part of the customer’s service is transferred onto fibre and allows greater speeds, whist the customer’s voice calls continue to the exchange over the existing copper line. FTTP or Fibre To The Premises, connects the customer’s premises by fibre cable all the way to the Openreach exchange, without going through the green street cabinets and provides fast broadband and VOIP. This service is being rolled out by Openreach in a programme costing billions of pounds and will continue for years to come, until it is available in the whole of the UK.

PSTN is a privately-owned copper wired based telecoms network and the decision to upgrade it has been taken by the telecommunications industry. Fixed-line operators - such as Openreach, BT and Virgin MediaO2 - will replace analogue telephone services with Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology, which carries voice calls as data using internet technology. The upgrade will be delivered by the telecoms industry in a phased approach over the next couple of years, with the UK network expected to be fully upgraded to VoIP services in 2025.  The switchover will happen on a telephone exchange by exchange basis and not on a regional basis seen in relation to the switchover of analogue television.

SOGEA stands for Single order Generic Ethernet Access and is the product name that Openreach use when selling this service to CPs. It is similar to FTTC but, when a customer moves to this service, they agree use the Internet for their voice calls (VoIP). The service uses the copper line from the customer’s premises to the green street cabinet and then fibre cable to the telephone exchange. Unlike with FTTC, the copper line from the green street cabinet to the telephone exchange is no longer used with SOGEA. This means that to make voice calls you will need to connect to your router in the premises either through WIFI or through a voice port in the back of the router - if one is supplied by the CP. These calls will be VoIP.

SoGFAST is similar to SOGEA, but offers faster broadband speeds, as it has additional equipment at the green street cabinet which boosts the speed.

To constrain the use of the older analogue services and the number of lines that will need migrating, Openreach have set “stop sell” dates, which are dates after which CPs will no longer be able to obtain new supply for their customers of these analogue services. There is a national “stop sell” date of September 2023, but some exchanges will hit their “stop sell” dates earlier, as Openreach’s roll out of FTTP into exchange areas reaches 75 per cent of premises. There is a list of these exchanges on the Openreach website. Stop Sell refers not only to new provision of analogue services, but also any of the following scenarios: Working Line Take overs; Start of a stopped line; Addition of lines and channels to existing installations; Migrations; CP Transfers; Bandwidth Modify and Addition of Broadband to copper voice lines.

Ultrafast broadband is a brand name used by some communicators providers to highlight the potential of their product offering for very fast broadband speeds.

Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) is a service whereby voice calls are made over the Internet.

OFCOM have not set rigid rules for this definition, they are leaving this to Communication Providers. More information can be found at Guidance: Protecting access to emergency organisations when there is a power cut at the customer’s premises.

All services known as part of the WLR analogue (Wholesale Line Rental) family will be terminated. These include standard lines, ISDN 2, ISDN 30, LLU, SMPF, SLU and SMPF. (Your CP will be able to tell you which of these services you currently use.