BT looking at retiring copper lines.
A local test in our area suggests BT is trialing Fibre connections with Digital phone numbers as new phone lines. This would be great for saving costs on maintenance (and to Customers? somehow doubtful).
Costs and savings? to us or BT?
I expect the connection costs to match pure fibre internet’s monthly fee (around £30-£45 per month), and TV and call plans bundled in to keep the price to us high.
Maybe Openreach will lower prices when they realize they don’t have to send engineers to rewire lines whenever it rains badly, cutting their costs down considerably, which doesn’t seem to pass onto consumers often.
Downside
Older/rural members of the population might not be able to use their old wired equipment due to the power requirement not being on the line. This might be already be figured out by the time it’s rolled out, possibly with a customer side battery or power storage on the line/exchange block, as it will need to be available through a power cut too for emergency use.
Another option is a Mobile hybrid system, which boosts the mobile signal via broadband.
Again, a slow process that should have been well ahead of current times. No sign of consumers getting decent deals on this tech within the next 5 years, oh and BT struggling to afford it. Fun.