Businesses served by Bristol’s Easton telephone exchange could face restrictions when ordering or upgrading traditional phone and broadband services from August 19, 2026, according to new analysis from business communications provider Crystaline. The Easton exchange is due to enter what Openreach calls “stop sell”. At premises where a suitable full fibre service is available, this restricts the copper-based phone and broadband products that can be newly ordered or upgraded.
The changes form part of the UK’s move away from the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), the traditional copper-based infrastructure that has supported business phone lines and broadband for decades. As the network is retired, affected services must move to digital alternatives. The practical impact extends beyond office landlines and broadband. Card payment terminals, alarm systems, lift emergency lines and building entry systems may still depend on copper connections, often without businesses realising until a service needs to be repaired, replaced or moved.
Where stop sell restrictions apply, organisations may be unable to reorder the same legacy service and could need to migrate the equipment to a digital alternative instead.
The Easton change forms part of a wider regional transition. Crystaline’s analysis found that 64.2 per cent of South West exchanges have already entered stop sell, while 32.7 per cent are scheduled to follow between August 2026 and June 2027.
“Many businesses still see the copper switch off as something happening in the future, but with the stop sell, the transition is already here,” said Kristian Torode, Director and Co-Founder of Crystaline. “For businesses still relying on old phone lines, the window to act is getting smaller. This is no longer just an infrastructure change, but a business-critical continuity issue.”
The impact goes beyond phone calls. The PSTN supports a wide range of business-critical services, including broadband connections, payment terminals, alarm systems, lift emergency lines and entry systems. Many of these dependencies remain invisible until a service needs to be upgraded, repaired or replaced.
Crystaline warns that businesses leaving migration plans until late 2026 could face increasing delays as demand for installations grows. With a typical migration taking 30 to 60 days, businesses leaving it late may face delays with surveys, installations and number transfers as providers handle a surge in demand.
“Autumn is likely to be a crunch point,” Torode added. “If too many organisations try to move at once, there will be pressure across the industry. The risk is not the deadline, but whether businesses can complete their migration in time, and that’s getting harder to guarantee.
“The UK is standing on a copper cliff, and businesses are closer to the edge than they think,” said Torode. “The safest approach is to identify every service that depends on a legacy line and start planning migration now. Waiting until a service fails or an order is blocked leaves too much to chance.”
