This topic

no longer building for full fibre FTTP?

shakey1981 — Wed, 18 Mar 2026 11:31:16 GMT

the info on this page went from

"we are bulding in this area now to "we have no plans to build here"

Re: no longer building for full fibre FTTP?

36ULW — Wed, 18 Mar 2026 11:44:47 GMT

A lot of Build is being scaled back by Openreach and Alt Nets because of costs.

The Free Money Tree they’ve had access too the past 4 or 5 years has now been felled by Rachel from Accounts.

The new Openreach CEO has said herself she plans on scaling back the build and concentrating on getting people connected to fibre in the places they have built.

Re: no longer building for full fibre FTTP?

andymerrett2 — Wed, 18 Mar 2026 16:19:49 GMT

It would be nice if the fibre they've already installed was reliable. I don't want to fall back to 4G Hybrid Connect once a month because the fibre connection has gone down for no identifiable reason. Getting 32/3 for up to a day per month when I should be getting 500/75 is insulting.

Re: no longer building for full fibre FTTP?

36ULW — Thu, 19 Mar 2026 07:49:55 GMT

You OK mate?

Reach out if you need.

Re: no longer building for full fibre FTTP?

andymerrett2 — Thu, 19 Mar 2026 10:45:38 GMT

Not sure if you meant me?

Yeah, I was just having a bit of a moan while on hybrid connect. 🙂

Anecdotally, including from an OR engineer, I've heard stories of the dubious quality of some of the fibre installs. Could be rumour and hearsay, but if there are problems behind the scenes perhaps that's another reason to slow down rollout. That said, I thought there was a mandate to get fibre rolled out to the majority of the country.

Mind you, they said that about gas/electric smart meters...

Re: no longer building for full fibre FTTP?

shakey1981 — Fri, 20 Mar 2026 14:03:30 GMT

kimd of a shame consider full 900mb is curremtly £22 with another company in the bt group

i would if mods would know if the posted marked as a solution is infact what has happened

Re: no longer building for full fibre FTTP?

WSH — Fri, 20 Mar 2026 14:35:38 GMT

I doubt they will, mate.

Although both BT Group, BT on here and Openreach are completely separate companies. You might as well ask Amazon what Openreach are doing. You’d be just as likely to get an answer.

Re: no longer building for full fibre FTTP?

ClaireD1 — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 15:11:48 GMT

Hi, I have had the same message pop up on Openreach postcode checker today saying “we have no plans to build full fibre to this property yet”. When I renewed my contract with Plusnet on 11/3/26 ( FTTC) Openreach was was saying “we are building in your area”

I was made aware of the copper switch off scheduled for January 2027. The Plusnet customer services guy said that if our address wasn’t on FTTP by Jan 2027 Plusnet would provide a 4g SIM with unlimited data and I would have to buy a 4g router. Yesterday another Plusnet person said that Plusnet would not be able to provide us with a service at all!

I am on SoGEA and don’t have a landline phone

so I did a bit of internet surfing and there are lots of different messages about the switch off. Lots of sites saying only landline phones are being switched off and other sites saying broadband will also be switched off

basically can anyone tell me whether I will still be able to get my broadband via FTTC if my house hasn’t been upgraded to full fibre in January 2027. Surely the Government are not going to leave lots of people without internet access and have factored in a safety buffer.

thanks

Re: no longer building for full fibre FTTP?

iniltous — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 15:20:36 GMT

The only thing switching off Jan 2027 is the PSTN telephone network, that’s the equipment within the exchange building that handles legacy telephone switching, which is being replaced (and in the majority of cases has already been done ) by an all IP (internet protocol) system , BT call their version Digital Voice ….SOGEA is unaffected by this date , in fact for many FTTP is still many years away and for some edge cases may never be provided , the PSTN switch off and FTTP rollout are not linked .

Re: no longer building for full fibre FTTP?

ClaireD1 — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 15:24:57 GMT

Thank you so much for your really quick reply.
I was starting to suspect this was the case the more I read up about it but you have confirmed I was correct and I will not be re-entering the old pre internet days! How would I cope without Netflix!
It is a tad annoying that I was given wrong info by my internet provider in the first place as it caused me some anxiety. Thank goodness for this forum, I just wished I had found it sooner as then I would not have wasted so much time getting worked up and annoyed!

Re: no longer building for full fibre FTTP?

shakey1981 — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 12:03:13 GMT

@ClaireD1 same as me

Re: no longer building for full fibre FTTP?

shakey1981 — Sat, 25 Apr 2026 11:14:37 GMT

just had it confired by email there was a delay assumed it was because i signed up to be notified of any changes

Re: no longer building for full fibre FTTP?

chrisjp — Sat, 25 Apr 2026 19:13:47 GMT

"I was made aware of the copper switch off scheduled for January 2027."

There is no copper switch off in Jan 2027. It's the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) that is being switched off. All telephone services will from then on have to be over broadband. But that broadband will continue to be carried over copper wires in places where there is no full fibre service - which are quite common outside urban areas.
This confusion over the "copper switch off" has been largely caused by BT saying in their advertising that they are "retiring outdated copper" and a lot of the media talking about "ripping out all the old copper lines".
This isn't going to happen anytime soon.

Re: no longer building for full fibre FTTP?

ClaireD1 — Sat, 25 Apr 2026 19:44:34 GMT

Thanks for the confirmation that FTTC will still be available

you are right BT have made it confusing!

Re: no longer building for full fibre FTTP?

gwowders — Thu, 30 Apr 2026 15:30:46 GMT

I had a similar story.

My current status used to be "We're building in your area"
An Openreach team was recently outside my house so I spoke to them and they confirmed that it was available on the pole at the end of my drive (and up the entire road).
I called BT and they said "yep, expect it to be available to buy shortly"
A few days later I had a notification (I was signed up the "notify me" mailing list) saying that sometimes large infrastructure projects hit snags and that this was now delayed
My new status is "We have no plans to build in your area"

It's incredibly frustrating to know that it's so close and yet so far... Has anyone had this only for it to become available to buy soon after??

Re: no longer building for full fibre FTTP?

ClaireD1 — Thu, 30 Apr 2026 16:08:39 GMT

That is frustrating

I have only got to “ we are planning …”

but now it’s back to “we have no plans to build in your area”

so it’s FTTC for me until who knows!

Re: no longer building for full fibre FTTP?

chrisjp — Thu, 30 Apr 2026 16:42:20 GMT

For all the criticism of it, FTTC can be quite adequate for a lot of people's broadband use. I'm not especially close the cabinet supplying me, but still get around 70Mbps broadband, which is quite sufficient to stream TV and surf the web.
I do recognise however that this might not be adequate for households with multiple users and a lot of gaming!

Re: no longer building for full fibre FTTP?

pddco — Fri, 01 May 2026 22:45:25 GMT

@chrisjp Certainly agree that there’s nothing wrong with FTTC. But think you’re downplaying its suitability somewhat. When UHD streaming is around 25Mbps or less ( depending on codecs) and low latency web browsing is around 10Mbps, and gaming more about latency than raw speed, I would suggest that 70Mbps is more than most would ever need. Marketing hype would say faster being better. But as video codecs become more efficient, and with more powerful local client processing becoming the norm, bit rates needed will likely reduce. Yes one would have to wait a bit longer to download a 5GB file @ 70Mbps than at 500, but meanwhile one could do something worthwhile, like make a cup of tea.

Re: no longer building for full fibre FTTP?

ClaireD1 — Sat, 02 May 2026 06:50:57 GMT

FTTC is perfectly adequate for my needs. My issues was the conflicting advice being given online and by internet providers about the copper switch off in January 2027. My internet provider told me that if I wasn’t connected to full fibre when the switch off happens I would not be able to get broadband and would have to use a 4G router!
this community has been a life saver as I now know that it’s just the landline being impacted which I don’t have. Hopefully at some point my road will get full fibre but as long as I can still get online that’s all that matters

Re: no longer building for full fibre FTTP?

licquorice — Sat, 02 May 2026 07:09:50 GMT

Why does everyone think the copper network is being switched off in 2027? It isn't, it's the analogue phone system that is being switched off, not the copper network. FTTC will be around for many years.