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<p>BT’s Digital Voice rollout relates to the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN)
migration. The PSTN is a privately-owned network and the upgrade to digital voice
services is an industry-led process. Consumers will be migrated to digital voice services
by 2025. We remain engaged with Communications Providers including BT to monitor their
migration processes. We want to ensure that consumers including the most vulnerable
are protected and prepared for the upgrade.</p><p>Copper switch off, or the retirement
of fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) broadband services, is a separate process. Ofcom, the
UK’s telecommunications regulator, will monitor and oversee the withdrawal of copper
services. FTTC broadband services will continue to operate after the PSTN has been
replaced.</p><p>In Volume Three of Ofcom’s Wholesale Fixed Telecoms Market Review
2021-26 (WFTMR), it set out some criteria by which it will allow Openreach to decommission
the copper-based network in future, however Ofcom has also decided it is currently
too early in the migration process to define the conditions that will trigger the
complete deregulation of the copper network. Ofcom will set out further details on
this process in the next market review period.</p>
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