Its not clear exactly what form this will take , but it’s not likely to include keeping the exchange switch estate working ( System X and System Y ) past December 2025 , the copper pair network has never part of the WLR/PSTN removal program , although it is in its retirement period, it will remain for some users , for many years to come.
Presumably the intention of this product is to remove the need for any customer provided power supply for their basic telephone equipment , mimicking the current ‘exchange’ 50V DC power supply , and AC 90V ‘ringing’ current ,delivered from the exchange ‘line card’ , a member of a different forum speculated that this ‘service’ could in effect be an ATA ( analogue telephone adapter ) equipment located at the exchange instead of at the customer , so basically it is still IP telephony ( allowing the exchange switch to be retired ) , but all the equipment normally at the customer end for IP telephony is located at the exchange ( the exchange buildings are not disappearing in December 2025 ) the copper pair to the customer ( via the ATA ) keeps the 50v present on the copper pair to the customer address , meaning at the customer end , nothing changes.
This makes the recovery of E side cable’s complicated ( but so does SoTAP ) but does allow the exchange equipment to be switched off, ‘telephony only lines’ that have no local power can be maintained.
