For more than 100 years, copper has formed the backbone for much of the world’s connectivity. And even after fiber started being used for communication networks in the 1970s, the orange metal would continue to rule for decades.

But today, copper network shutdowns are happening around the world amid ubiquitous fiber connectivity.

The European Commission has set a 2030 copper shutdown date for its member states as part of its push towards gigabit networks. Few have fully managed the feat to-date, though Connect Europe predicts 21 PSTN networks in Europe will have been decommissioned by 2030.

In the UK, the country’s copper network telephone exchanges (also known as Central Offices) all belong to BT and its subsidiary Openreach. The companies are also in the midst of a large fiber rollout and planned retirement of the incumbent’s old copper networks.

Openreach currently operates some 5,600 BT-owned exchanges; most of those are for copper and other legacy services, with the company operating its fiber service from around 1,000 newer exchanges, known as Openreach Handover Points (OHPs).

In 2023, Openreach said it aims to close 103 legacy exchanges by December 2030, starting with a trial of five sites (later downsized to three). The first, in Oxfordshire, has now closed, with the other two pilot sites closing soon. The company is in discussions with communications providers including BT, Sky, Vodafone, and others over closing the other 4,600 exchanges the company has across the UK in the 2030s.

BT and Openreach won’t be the first companies in Europe to call time on copper; Norway and Spain’s incumbent telcos have already completed the majority of their switch-offs.

Telefónica recently completed its switch-off in Spain, reducing the number of exchanges from more than 8,500 nationally to around 3,000 fiber-centric sites. Telefónica first shut off copper networks in Sant Cugat del Vallès (Barcelona) and Torrelodones (Madrid) back in 2015; the first exchanges that hosted other providers were shut in Clot (Barcelona) and Hermosilla (Madrid) in 2021. The last tranche of 661 copper exchanges were closed in May 2025.

The UK won’t be the last though; Germany is yet to make firm plans to get off copper – though Deutsche Telekom is known to be interested – while Greece is yet to announce a switch-off date.

Telecom Argentina started its copper shutdown in 2023; Ethiopia’s Ethio Telecom, Norway’s Telenor, Ireland’s Eir, Belgium’s Proximus, France’s Orange, Portugal’s MEO, Sweden’s Telia, and Monaco Telecom are others that have or are in the midst of copper retirement. Proximus is said to be mulling the sale of some 500 properties as part of its network switch-off.

“We believe that fiber networks are fundamental to the digital transformation of Europe,” FTTH Council Europe President, Roshene McCool, said in January 2025.

“Phasing out copper networks for fiber infrastructure will lower energy consumption and reduce overall operating costs, therefore making a great contribution to the achievement of the EU’s Digital Decade objectives”

In the US, the telephone exchanges are owned by a number of incumbent local exchange carriers (ILECs); the local telephone companies that held the regional monopoly on landline service before the market was opened to competition in 1996.

Companies with ILEC networks include Verizon, AT&T, Lumen, Brightspeed, and Ziply. A 2015 report from FierceWireless suggests there could be as many as 30,000 Central Offices across North America.

While most telcos long ago sold off their core data center assets, telephone exchanges offer a way for incumbents to potentially get back into the Edge sector if they hang on to and repurpose assets, rather than sell them off. Telecoms consultancy firm STL Partners predicts there will be as many as 1,800 “network Edge” data centers globally by 2028 – up from just over 800 today.

Ziply has upgraded its copper network to fiber and used the excess real estate to start offering retail colocation services. AT&T, meanwhile has signed several sale-leaseback deals for a number of its copper exchanges ahead of its own network retirement plan.

Frontier – which is being acquired by Verizon – previously announced a deal to let AT&T deploy equipment for its 5G network in its former copper COs. Lumen has also reportedly pivoted some of its old Central Offices to data center colocation. Frontier also offers what it calls ‘Edge Colocation’ at more than 2,500 locations, including its Central Offices. Brightspeed – acquired from legacy Lumen assets – also offers colocation services from its facilities.

January 2025 saw AT&T seal a $850 million sale-leaseback with real estate firm Reign Capital for 74 underutilized Central Offices, following a similar deal with Real in 2021 for 13 other properties. The company, which plans to retire its copper network completely by 2029, said the deal comprised a “small portion” of its copper portfolio.

In Canada, Telus is converting several inner-city telephone exchange sites into large residential developments as part of its Telus Living developments intiaitive.

This feature first appeared in DCD>Magazine #58. Register here to read the whole magazine free of charge.