Openreach Closes First Legacy Exchange Deddington

[dhutch]

Interesting milestone in our national migration from copper to the premises.

Significant and pivotal moment in our ~150 histroy of telecommunication.

https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2025/11/open...

[Cristio Nasser]

They’re just being replaced with data centers. Those are today’s telephone exchanges, and in 50yrs time will go the same way. Made redundant by newer tech, whatever that turns out to be.

Distributed Wireless Ai quantum computers powered by SMR’s. Maybe.

[Quattr04.]

I spend a lot of time in exchanges and it’s interesting to see the progress, the big ones and even the medium ones where you can see all the redundant equipment from times gone by, room and rooms of stuff replaced by a single rack

Used to love the clicking of the PTSN line rooms

[fooman]

Cristio Nasser said:

They re just being replaced with data centers. Those are today s telephone exchanges, and in 50yrs time will go the same way. Made redundant by newer tech, whatever that turns out to be.

Distributed Wireless Ai quantum computers powered by SMR s. Maybe.

New tech to service the demand for more AI generated cat videos

[Gary C]

Quattr04. said:

I spend a lot of time in exchanges and it s interesting to see the progress, the big ones and even the medium ones where you can see all the redundant equipment from times gone by, room and rooms of stuff replaced by a single rack

Used to love the clicking of the PTSN line rooms

Ahhh, the old Strowger exchanges !

Clicking and whirring switches by the thousands in a big exchange. Went to see one in the early 70's with school and have been fascinated ever since.

[vikingaero]

I've been inside a fair few exchanges and offices are empty as staff are no longer required. The amount of dead space is pretty staggering, but I suppose the land is owned and paid for. I sometimes think it would be better converted to more flats with a tiny new space for the exchange.

[Sway]

vikingaero said:

I've been inside a fair few exchanges and offices are empty as staff are no longer required. The amount of dead space is pretty staggering, but I suppose the land is owned and paid for. I sometimes think it would be better converted to more flats with a tiny new space for the exchange.

Same here, although it's a long time ago.

Problem is, those exchanges are utterly fked as buildings. Chopped and changed loads, never designed for anything like habitation and absolutely riddled with asbestos.

Then there's the actual conversion. That's a hell of a lot of connections and lines running routes through the fabric, that are all going to have to be migrated to the new smaller exchange. Even though the switchgear is now tiny, the battery backups aren't!

[JoshSm]

Guess it depends on the exchanges, but you'd think there might be some life as local/edge data centres for some of the larger ones as they're usually pretty solid, secure, ready for equipment & racking and have the power & data connections.

You couldn't fit *lots* in there but great for the sort of edge servers Netflix & others use.

The little sheds like the one linked aren't quite so handy.

[Help78]

Sway said:

vikingaero said:

I've been inside a fair few exchanges and offices are empty as staff are no longer required. The amount of dead space is pretty staggering, but I suppose the land is owned and paid for. I sometimes think it would be better converted to more flats with a tiny new space for the exchange.

Same here, although it's a long time ago.

Problem is, those exchanges are utterly fked as buildings. Chopped and changed loads, never designed for anything like habitation and absolutely riddled with asbestos.

Then there's the actual conversion. That's a hell of a lot of connections and lines running routes through the fabric, that are all going to have to be migrated to the new smaller exchange. Even though the switchgear is now tiny, the battery backups aren't!

You might be surprised. BT have been turning exchanges into apartments for the last 20 years, particularly in London.

BT had retained the rights to the roof over one such building and I was overseeing a mobile operators install on the roof when I got a call asking why the flat bit of roof they planned to land an eqpt. cabinet on was no longer flat. It transpired that the apartment owner wanted a drop down screen at the bottom of his bed, so the developer had built a recess into the ceiling for the screen to disappear up into and this had created the newly raised part of the roof.

[Quattr04.]

Sway said:

vikingaero said:

I've been inside a fair few exchanges and offices are empty as staff are no longer required. The amount of dead space is pretty staggering, but I suppose the land is owned and paid for. I sometimes think it would be better converted to more flats with a tiny new space for the exchange.

Same here, although it's a long time ago.

Problem is, those exchanges are utterly fked as buildings. Chopped and changed loads, never designed for anything like habitation and absolutely riddled with asbestos.

Then there's the actual conversion. That's a hell of a lot of connections and lines running routes through the fabric, that are all going to have to be migrated to the new smaller exchange. Even though the switchgear is now tiny, the battery backups aren't!

Plus BT aren t the sharpest bunch

There s a exchange in mid wales, where it was attached to a post office building, which closed down, so BT sold it off and it was due to become student accommodation, the 2 buildings shared a common fire exit staircase which lead to the BT lift motor rooms and tank rooms, the fire exit also lead into the exchange main ground floor lobby

They only seem to have discovered this once the builders where working and engineers reported random people walking around the exchange, which you could then use the lift to access any of the other floors, and if you so wanted too, smash the door into a very secure metronode

Now they ve had to spend vast amount of money creating a new steel enforced wall at the Bottom of the stairs to create a new fire escape thr doesn t lead into the exchange



Some buildings are still in use for offices, there’s a secure one in Cheltenham for example, and in bath and Swindon some staff still work from them but lots are declared as not for office use

There’s a bit of fuss with the union that when the smaller exchanges close where will beginners be able to use the toilet and canteens, and store vans, as many enginners pool vans and work 4 days etc


You can tell the ones they plan to keep, they’re all getting new roofs and obviously have fibre to them

Edited by Quattr04. on Thursday 8th January 23:43

[vaud]

JoshSm said:

Guess it depends on the exchanges, but you'd think there might be some life as local/edge data centres for some of the larger ones as they're usually pretty solid, secure, ready for equipment & racking and have the power & data connections.

You couldn't fit *lots* in there but great for the sort of edge servers Netflix & others use.

The little sheds like the one linked aren't quite so handy.

Modern data centres consume orders of magnitude amounts of power…

[JoshSm]

vaud said:

Modern data centres consume orders of magnitude amounts of power

AI might consume 600kW per rack but stuff like Netflix Open Connect doesn't.

[Paul Drawmer]

Living in Deddington, we've been on fttp for ages.
And as you can see, we have all been migrated to VOIP. Which is fine.

BUT. The mobile signal here is awful for all providers. Until I was able to get wifi calls on my mobile phone, getting sms verification was sometimes impossible.

So now we have the situation where if there's a power cut, we are reliant on a non-existent mobile signal.

I have invested in a battery back up PSU that will power the router and fibre termination thing (can't remember the proper term) for 9 hours so we can maintain comms.

I wonder where the data centre is and how are they powered when the mains goes dead. ISTR exchanges had loads of lead/acid cells.

[Sway]

As said before, it was a long time ago (installing power distribution/backup kit into what are now called Metronodes) - but BT is unique in having a legal requirement that a 999 call will ALWAYS get through.

Aiui, if someone makes that call and it doesn't connect, then someone very senior has to explain to Parliament why. Hence the huge amount of battery backup.

We were putting literal tonnes of batteries into those Metronodes, as they were going to be such critical elements of the new network. (Back then, it was called "21CN" for 21st Century Network - is that what is now known as Infinity, BT guys?)

[vaud]

JoshSm said:

AI might consume 600kW per rack but stuff like Netflix Open Connect doesn't.

Fair point.