Don't forget that in the medium term the Subject is known to be not really relevant. The question is more about withdrawal of PSTN by 2025. The copper will remain in place and will provide a digital phone service. Digital Voice has been discussed. Lifts, alarms and the like would presumably be handled in the same way.

Another poster has said that in some places FTTP may be installed earlier than previously planned and the copper removed. Whether correct or not, that makes no difference.

IMO the cost to recover the copper would be exorbitant and I cant see OR or BT wanting to recover it. Simply not cost effective.

Copper recovery was discussed a while back, and basically all agreed with what you say. Certainly doing it piecemeal would be daft, requiring long-term storage.

In a while, doing it in bulk as staff numbers are inevitably reduced might just about make sense. Or letting a subcontractor do the last mile to home and business premises then, and taking a cut of their profit.

Exchange to near user-premises probably worthwhile and safer to do inhouse. Considering the umpteen miles of underground bulk cables.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

Still not quite clear (to me at least) how this will work at the exchange…specifically the bit quoted below taken from the SOTAP blurb about the ‘engineering work’ for voice only WLR lines.

“There’ll be no engineering needed if LLU shared metallic path facility (SMPF) is already on the line – because it reuses the current LLU SMPF exchange equipment. We can still install it if there isn’t any LLU SMPF on the line (i.e. voice-only WLR lines) – we’ll just need to do some engineering work first.”

The voice-only WLR lines will need to be connected to an MSAN or DSLAM or maybe just a modem rack at the exchange in order to get a digital connection for Digital Voice.

That would make sense, ultimately the copper has to carry a basic data connection in lieu of dial tone.

Extra long rural lines could pose a challenge with data connectivity. MHC has mentioned the Scottish Highlands, but there are plenty of other places like the Lincolnshire Wolds with challenging geography that could be rather expensive to change if other delivery means like 4G aren’t feasible.

In reply to a post by pluralist:

Copper recovery was discussed a while back, and basically all agreed with what you say. Certainly doing it piecemeal would be daft, requiring long-term storage.

In a while, doing it in bulk as staff numbers are inevitably reduced might just about make sense. Or letting a subcontractor do the last mile to home and business premises then, and taking a cut of their profit.

Exchange to near user-premises probably worthwhile and safer to do inhouse. Considering the umpteen miles of underground bulk cables.

Is that you RobertoS?

Is that you RobertoS?

Much discussion on the subject in the nether regions of the forum (where I believe you don’t post.

https://forums.thinkbroadband.com/park/t/4684967-dit...

Two new usernames in as many days … a ‘mid-posting crisis’ possibly ?

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

Is that you RobertoS?

Yes .
But the fact I say so using the new nick rather than the old one does not, of itself, prove it true. However the cease of posting on the old one is evidential.

OK

Fair enough. Only post there from time to time.

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

Fair enough. Only post there from time to time.

I avoid that place, and find it strange its impact spills out to the rest of the site.