Goodbye home phone!
The next batch of locations in the UK to receive the latest broadband technology have been announced.
BT Openreach, which provides broadband infrastructure across the UK, has confirmed that 84 new sites will switch to fibre-to-the-premises technology over the next 12 months.
The full list of locations is below:
Aberdeen Portlethen • Aberdeen • Uttingham • Aldminster • Appleton Roebuck • Ashton (Northumberland) • Greater Manchester – Wigan • Sheffield • Greater London – Barking and Dagenham • Doncaster • Bishop Auckland • Bridgend • Burnham-on-Sea • Glasgow • Buxton (Peak) • Carlisle • Gillingham (Kent) • Chester Field • Trevor • Colville • Hedge • Rippingale • Thornfield • Rugby • Greater Manchester – Manchester • Leicester • Exeter • Flamborough • Ispwich • Gerry Ramsby • Raleigh • Cannock • Houghton-le-Spring • Huddersfield • Ilkeston • Ilkley • Kittsgrove • Luton • Leven • Haywards Heath • Ramblin Mel • Cardiff • Wakefield • Mareham Llefern • Chatham • Moore • Greater Manchester – Tameside • Motherwell • Greater London – Southwark • New Mills • South Cave • North Kelsey • Greater Manchester – Oldham, Penistone, Pontardaway, Lowndes, Rilsby, Craigavon, Ross-on-Wye, Rotherfield, Cherm Sford, Rugby, Scott, Scunthorpe, Shelbourne (County Durham), Skegness, Solihull, Blackpool, Southend-on-Sea, Stortfold , Stratford-upon-Avon • Antrim • Leicester • Torquay • Tregenon • Ellington (Northumberland) • Bradford • Greater London – Havering • Waltham • Rotherham • Brighton and Hove
The copper wires that keep homes across the UK connected have been phased out in recent years thanks to the advent of fiber optic technology.
The upgrade will deliver faster broadband speeds to more homes and will of course change the way we make phone calls.
The plan is to have all homes in the UK use VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) instead of using aging analogue lines to call grandma.
VOIP has much higher call quality than older analog products and includes a range of new features including multi-calling and call forwarding to any other phone number, including mobile phones.
As the BT Openreach website acknowledges, while “the humble copper wire has been the backbone of telecommunications in the UK and around the world for more than a century”, the fact is that “it is no longer as efficient as it once was”. Replacement parts are hard to come by and it breaks down more often than we thought, meaning it doesn't provide the world-class service we need.
“This is why we will decommission our analog phone network at the end of 2025,” they added.
The BT Openreach website also offers a search engine where you can find out if your home is ready to switch to superfast full fiber broadband.
Once the nationwide switchover is complete, Openreach will stop selling traditional analogue products in more than 880,000 venues across the UK. This will affect providers including BT, Sky, TalkTalk, Vodafone and Plusnet, which all use Openreach cables to provide network services to homes.
It may seem like a long overdue move to many, but some in the older generation will be worried about how to stay connected. Some households are still not connected to the internet, while others have expressed concern that the internet can be offline at times.
VOIP requires a network to operate, so if an outage occurs, families may not be able to stay connected unless they also own a smartphone. This could put more vulnerable Britons at risk in an emergency.
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#landlines #switched #areas
