TECHNICAL
The Isle of Wight’s Big Copper Switch Off
by Wightfibre
The UK has one of the oldest telephone systems in the world, and in 1879, within just three years of the first telephone call by Alexander Graham Bell in 1876, London had its first telephone exchange. Over the course of this time we have seen the increasing emergence of automation, such as the first automatic telephone exchange as long ago as 1912. We had to wait until 1980 for the first digital exchanges to appear and the mid 90’s for the early dial-up internet services to start. It’s amazing to think of it now, but the start of modern broadband era only started at the turn of this millennium. With more and more people using mobile phones, many only have a traditional “landline” telephone because they have to in order to facilitate their broadband. Now all that is set to change and the next big revolution is upon us. In this white paper from WightFibre, we’ll look at what some are calling the “Big Copper Switch
Off” and what it means to home users and businesses.
Introduction The traditional telephone network that we have been familiar with is coming to an end. This network has become known as the “Plain Old Telephony System” or POTS, but more accurately is called the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). PSTN makes use of analogue signals sent over copper wire, and although exchanges and trunk lines have been converted to digital since the 1980’s, the wires to the home essentially connect two simple microphones and loudspeakers together on each end of the call. They can also carry a voltage signal that is used to power and ring the bell – this is why you could even connect a genuine vintage rotary dial phone with bell to the existing network today!
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May 2025 Volume 47 No.2
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