UK telecoms wholesaler Openreach is delaying the closure of two telephone exchanges that were due to shut over the weekend.

The BT-owned company last week announced it had exited Deddington Exchange in Oxfordshire, making it the first of 4,600 exchanges across the UK to be fully decommissioned as part of its copper network shutdown.

Openreach was set to close two more – Ballyclare in Northern Ireland and Kenton Road in London – over the weekend as part of the initial pilot exit program.

However, citing a private briefing to its communication provider customers last week, ISPreview reports that Openreach confirmed the exchanges did not close over the weekend as planned.

“Whilst we continue to work this through, we’ve now confirmed with industry that where CPs [Communication Providers] have failed to migrate consumer customers’ assets prior to the deadline, Openreach will not cease on 1st December 2025, but services will remain subject to original termination notices – we will keep CPs informed of any future plans to cease these lines,” a spokesperson told ISPreview.

The two exchanges are larger than Deddington – each serving 9,500 premises compared to 1,500 – making migration more difficult. While business customers can be shut-off, Openreach and its ISP customers have to be careful to ensure any customers classed as vulnerable are not put at risk by being disconnected. ISPreview noted late last month that some ISPs were struggling to ensure all its customers would be migrated in time.

New closure/exit dates for the two sites are yet to be agreed.

BT subsidiary Openreach currently operates some 5,600 telephone exchanges across the UK; 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). On average, each OHP is set to replace four to five traditional exchanges, with some OHPs replacing ten or more in some inner city locations.

Openreach aims to close more than 100 legacy exchanges by December 2030, with the rest closing in the early 2030s. Each exchange exit is expected to take four to seven years, depending on the size and complexity of each facility.

Work to exit another 12 exchanges is due to start in April 2026. These include Staines, Thames Ditton, Baynard, Wraysbury, Nazeing, Langford, Allestree Park, Beacon, Childwall, Lundin Links, Carrickfergus, and Glengormley.

Almost all of the group’s exchange footprint is owned by UK real estate firm Telereal Trillium, which acquired the majority of BT’s real estate portfolio back in 2001 for £2.3bn. Over the years, Telereal (now operating as TT Group) has sold a number of exited BT offices and several exchanges, with most converted into residential developments.

DCD visited the BT Tower in London and spoke to Openreach about its exchange exit program in the latest issue of DCD>Magazine. Read it here for free.