KCOM to switch 170,000 homes to fibre ahead of copper phone network switch-off

The entire process is expected to take around 18 months to two years to complete, with a particular focus from the company on around 11,000 ‘digitally excluded’ households which aren’t currently connected to the internet.

Hull and the surrounding area of East Yorkshire is the only part of the UK that doesn’t have BT, which has its own separate plans to switch off its own copper network nationally by the end of 2025 after moving customers to fibre services.

KCOM has already rolled out the UK’s most comprehensive fibre broadband network – meaning more than 90 per cent homes and businesses already have a fibre connection in place. However, for some people who are not online, mainly older people, it will mean having a fibre connection installed and plugging their phone into a different wall socket.

Managing director Neil Bartholomew said: "Around 170,000 will be affected because at the moment they get their voice services over copper. For those that have already got a fibre connection to the home and there’s a fibre network, it is as simple as plugging a telephony adapter into the broadband connection and then into your phone and us doing a migration from copper to a fibre service.

"For the vast majority of customers, it is about giving them a phone call, understanding their needs, posting them out an adapter, us telling them when we are going to switch it over and they move their phone from the old analogue socket into this adapter.”

He said there will be extra challenges with non-internet customers – some of whom will require a couple of hours of work outside their properties to enable connections. "We have around 11,000 voice-only customers and they are the ones at the moment who only have copper into their homes and we will have to do a fibre connection. For some of them, it will be us replacing an overhead copper wire and there will be no disruption. For other people, we don’t know who will need work across the garden or not. But it will be very easy for the customer.”

Mr Bartholomew said phone numbers will stay the same, as will the cost of phone-only services. The programme will also have the benefit of allowing ‘digitally-excluded’ customers an easier opportunity to access the internet if they wish.

He added that specialist agents will speak to vulnerable customers to “take the fear out” of the process, while KCOM is also partnering with charities such as Age UK to assist with the rollout.

"We have to move the network because it is completely ageing technology. For the vast majority of customers, this will be a very simple plug-in. For those customers where it is more complicated and they need more help, we will be there to help you.”