National stop/sell

ISPreview had a news item recently that BT plan to resume their Digital Voice rollout next spring. They "paused" it last March, so it will have been on hold somehow for about a year.

I'm not close to these things and I'm not sure what the pause actually meant, but I don't think they stopped DV rollout completely, it was just in cases where there were special requirements while they got their act together better on emergency back-up measures?

Whatever, is it likely that this delay will impact the national PSTN/WLR stop-sell due to start on 5 Sep 23? Doesn't affect me, but I like to keep tabs to be able to help a few older folks in my village.

Maybe Marc and Clive have a round of golf occasionally, but that’s as far as these things are correlated 😎😅

In reply to a post by Thaumaturge:

s it likely that this delay will impact the national PSTN/WLR stop-sell due to start on 5 Sep 23?

I have seen no announcement of any change or slippage to PSTN/WLR switch-off timetable, so I think you should assume it's going ahead as planned.

Bear in mind that WLR stop sell is not the same as a product withdrawal, so no action needs to be taken until people's CPs start contacting them.

If I've understood this page correctly, then if someone has ADSL or FTTC now, after 5 Sep 23 it won't be possible to switch CPs and retain a landline phone over WLR? Or indeed retain ADSL? The gaining provider would have to provision SOGEA and VoIP.

The exchange which serves my village is not currently on any published OR FTTP build plans. It's certainly not an FTTP priority exchange. FTTC is available pretty much everywhere. SOGEA is available. A couple of altnets are live here - do they count as "alternative fibre products" for the purposes of the WLR withdrawal table in the ref?

That only applies to the WLR portfolio. ADSL will still be available if providers still support it, as it is not an openreach product. However, copper services will not be available in FTTP areas where there is a copper stop sell if openreach FTTP is available .
Altnets are not relevant to this.

In reply to a post by Thaumaturge:

A couple of altnets are live here - do they count as "alternative fibre products" for the purposes of the WLR withdrawal table in the ref?

Altnet's if they provide a voice service will be using VoIP anyway which is what the other providers that use Openreach, KCOM, Virgin Media are switching too instead of WLR.

In reply to a post by Thaumaturge:

Whatever, is it likely that this delay will impact the national PSTN/WLR stop-sell due to start on 5 Sep 23? Doesn't affect me, but I like to keep tabs to be able to help a few older folks in my village.

The "pause" was just some PR from BT Consumer and was not the pause of the nationwide WLR/PSTN closure programme by Openreach, KCOM or Virgin Media. No other provider paused their mass migrations of customers and they continued with their own migration plans. BT Consumer still migrated certain customers to their VoIP alternative called Digital Voice during this "pause".

Openreach during the last year have been very much pushing for providers to start implementing their migration plans and ensuring they forecast and hit the trial location withdrawal dates, and ultimately the September 5th 2023 nationwide WLR stop-sell date and the December 2025 WLR/PSTN complete closure date.

Openreach with the rest of industry have been having regular industry wide working groups and regular newsletters updating the progresses and very much reminding the industry and providers to act now and be prepared.

The BT Consumer pause was most likely to be restarted again anyway in order to meet the September 5th 2023 nationwide WLR stop-sell date.

That is correct, but I assumed the people you mentioned in your post as needing assistance with their broadband/telephone aren't hopping providers that often either.

In reply to a post by Thaumaturge:

...the national PSTN/WLR stop-sell due to start on 5 Sep 23? Doesn't affect me, but I like to keep tabs to be able to help a few older folks in my village.

From the summary of UK 5 September 2023 stop sell rules:
"If premises get availability for GEA-FTTP, SOGfast or SOGEA post stop sell, SOTAP will be made unavailable for new supply immediately."

Possibly worth bearing that in mind later next year for anybody wishing to retain their "landline", does not have, nor want broadband and might be considering a change of phone provider? That rule might affect my elderly aunt but I think she is currently happy with her BT retail "landline".