A consultation period has opened to agree the framework of the transition with the communication providers currently using the copper network. This is a huge undertaking given the scale of the current usage and the potential cost, estimated to be £39bn plus the political will to see the transition completed by the 2030. In addition to this the current market value of copper, the extraction costs and the size of the majority of the cables means that the scrap value is unlikely to make a significant contribution to the funding of the change-over. A more selective extraction approach may be required to free up space in duct network in congested urban areas.
Openreach, the builder and maintainer of the UK’s largest communications network has announced plans to retire their copper network and move over to a full fibre solution to the home or business (FTTX).
Openreach Engineer splicing fibre.