Digital Networks Act copper switch-off: the EU mandate and the UK route
In short: Digital Networks Act copper switch-off provisions would oblige every EU Member State to mandate copper retirement by binding legal act, in all switch-off areas by 31 December 2035. The first lists of qualifying areas are due by 30 June 2029, which is the operative date. The UK has no equivalent statute and is retiring copper commercially, years earlier.
An operator running copper in an EU market can now see a statutory end date for it. Article 54 of the European Commission’s proposed Digital Networks Act (DNA) would oblige Member States to mandate copper switch-off by binding legal act, with 31 December 2035 as the outer limit. UK operators face no such provision and do not need one. Openreach and BT are retiring copper on a commercial timetable that finishes well before that date, with Ofcom regulating the consequences rather than setting the deadline.
What the proposed EU Digital Networks Act copper switch-off mandate would require
Article 54 of the proposed DNA would require a Member State to mandate copper switch-off in each copper switch-off area where the sustainability conditions in Article 57(1) are met, and in every such area by 31 December 2035. The mandate would have to take the form of a binding legal act, setting a start date no later than one year after its adoption and requiring completion within three years of that start date.
The conditions in Article 57(1) are specific and cumulative: at least 95% of the premises in the switch-off area passed by a fibre network, and affordable retail connectivity services of comparable quality available to end-users still on copper. Affordability parameters would be left to national regulatory authorities. The exemption in Article 54(3) is equally cumulative: a Member State may decline to mandate switch-off only where fibre deployment is not economically viable and no adequate connectivity solution capable of replacing copper-based services is available.
Article 58(3) carries the date that matters most, and it is not 2035. National regulatory authorities would have to publish a list of switch-off areas meeting the conditions by 30 June 2029, and at least every 12 months for the five years after that. From the first of those lists the mandating obligation would attach area by area. Around that sit the supporting provisions: national regulatory authorities would delimit the areas under Article 55 against Commission guidance, Article 56 would require a national transition to fibre plan, Article 59 carries the consumer safeguards, and Article 60 would require operators to publish their own switch-off plans. None of this exists in the European Electronic Communications Code, the Directive the DNA would repeal.
The UK is reaching the same point without a statute
There is no UK equivalent of the Digital Networks Act copper switch-off mandate, and the UK is further ahead than the EU deadline contemplates. The industry set the retirement date for the public switched telephone network itself, and Ofcom regulates what follows from it: the access framework, the price protections and the consumer safeguards. Ofcom published its Telecoms Access Review 2026-31 statement on 17 March 2026, setting the regulated terms on which copper regulation gives way to fibre over the review period. The framework for withdrawing copper products is set out in our copper retirement framework post, and the migration position is covered in our PSTN switch-off post.
Both regimes end copper. What differs is the instrument. The EU proposes to compel it through national legislation with a fixed backstop; the UK arrives at the same place because the incumbent finds copper uneconomic to run alongside fibre, and the regulator’s job is to make the transition orderly.
| Question | What the Digital Networks Act would do | What the UK does |
|---|---|---|
| Who sets the end date | The Member State, by binding legal act under Article 54 | The incumbent, commercially, with Ofcom regulating the consequences |
| First operative date | 30 June 2029, when the first lists of qualifying areas would be published under Article 58(3) | PSTN retirement already under way on the industry timetable |
| Outer deadline | 31 December 2035 for all copper switch-off areas | No statutory deadline |
| Trigger conditions | 95% of premises passed by fibre, plus affordable comparable retail services (Article 57(1)) | Commercial viability, with Ofcom conditions on withdrawing regulated copper products |
| Completion window | Three years from the start date in each mandating act | Set by the operator’s own programme |
| Exemption | Only where fibre is not economically viable and no adequate replacement exists (Article 54(3)) | Not applicable |
| Planning obligation | National transition to fibre plan (Article 56) and operator switch-off plans (Article 60) | Operator programmes regulated through the Telecoms Access Review |
What else the Digital Networks Act does
The DNA would repeal three instruments outright and amend three more. It would repeal the European Electronic Communications Code, the BEREC Regulation and the Radio Spectrum Policy Programme Decision. It would also amend Regulation (EU) 2015/2120, retitling it so that only the intra-EU retail price cap would survive and moving the open internet rules into Articles 93 and 94 of the Regulation itself.
It reaches into privacy law as well. Article 207 would delete Articles 7, 8, 10, 11 and 12 of the ePrivacy Directive, Directive 2002/58/EC. Four of those would move into the Digital Networks Act. The fifth, Article 12 on directories of subscribers, is deleted with nothing replacing it, and the European Data Protection Supervisor said in Opinion 8/2026 of 18 March 2026 that the deletion would leave directory entries without protection and should be reversed. UK law is unaffected: regulations 9, 10 to 13, 15 to 17 and 18 of the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003 remain in force as drafted. On directories in particular, regulation 18 would leave the UK more protective than the EU.
Two further elements matter to anyone assessing an EU-facing business. Part III would introduce a Single Passport authorisation at Article 10, available alongside general authorisation rather than in place of it, under which a provider notifies in one Member State and operates across the Union. Articles 38 to 42 would create a Union-level authorisation for satellite networks and satellite spectrum, with existing national satellite authorisations preserved for 36 months after entry into force. Where an EU target holds those authorisations, the transitional matters to the diligence: our regulatory due diligence page covers the scope of that work. The DNA as a whole, and what it would change for a UK group with EU operations, is set out on our EU Digital Networks Act page.
What the DNA does about network cost contribution
The DNA contains no network cost contribution, no levy on traffic-generating platforms and no arbitration of commercial terms. The debate that dominated the 2023 exploratory consultation and the 2024 White Paper is answered in Articles 191 to 193 by a voluntary framework: BEREC would publish guidelines on cooperation between network providers and other undertakings in the sector, and a national regulatory authority would offer a conciliatory meeting on request, informing BEREC within a week and receiving its opinion within two months.
Recital 164 states the position without ambiguity. It records that non-public network providers increasingly hand traffic to public network providers by peering or transit, that this “may give rise to disproportionate or unsustainable investment needs for the receiving providers”, and that such situations “should be addressed in accordance with the guidelines to facilitate ecosystem cooperation adopted by BEREC and, where appropriate, through the foreseen facility for voluntary conciliation”. The Commission identified the problem in the operators’ own terms and resolved it with guidance and a meeting.
Where the DNA has got to
The file is at first reading in both institutions and no text has been agreed. In the European Parliament the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy holds the file under procedure 2026/0013(COD), with a rapporteur appointed on 26 February 2026 and the Internal Market and Civil Liberties committees associated. In the Council, the Working Party on Telecommunications and Information Society completed a first article-by-article pass on much of the text, and the presidency reported progress to the Transport, Telecommunications and Energy Council on 9 June 2026 in document 9685/26. No general approach has been reached. The French Senate filed a reasoned opinion on 17 June 2026, a formal subsidiarity objection. The centralising provisions, the Single Passport and Union-level numbering, are the obvious candidates for it.
Viewpoint
The copper provisions are the part of the DNA I would read first, because they are the part with a date attached and the part that changes asset values. Most of the commentary has fixed on 2035, which I think is the wrong date to plan against. The obligation attaches area by area from the first Article 58(3) lists in mid-2029, so a model built to the backstop is built six years late. The gap between the two regimes also tells you something about how differently the markets have developed: the UK is retiring copper because the economics of running two networks stopped working, and the EU is legislating a deadline because in several Member States they have not stopped working yet. The Council record shows copper and access were the first workstream Member States asked for a dedicated technical workshop on, which is where I would expect the text to move most between now and a general approach. For anyone modelling an EU fixed-line asset, the practical point is that the mandating instrument is national, so the date that binds a given network will be set by a Member State legal act and not by the Regulation, and Article 54(4) fixes the shape of that act rather than its timing.
Frequently asked questions
Does the Digital Networks Act apply in the UK?
No. The Digital Networks Act is an EU proposal and would not apply in the United Kingdom, and there is no UK proposal to mirror it. UK telecoms regulation remains the Communications Act 2003 and the Wireless Telegraphy Act 2006, as amended in 2020 to give effect to the European Electronic Communications Code, together with Ofcom’s General Conditions of Entitlement.
When would the Digital Networks Act copper switch-off obligation start to apply?
The DNA would apply six months after entry into force, and entry into force is twenty days after publication in the Official Journal. Neither date is fixed, because the text is still at first reading. Two dates in Part V Title I are expressed as calendar dates and do not move with the commencement provisions: 30 June 2029, by which national regulatory authorities must publish the first lists of qualifying switch-off areas under Article 58(3), and 31 December 2035, the outer deadline in Article 54(2).
Does the Digital Networks Act make platforms pay for networks?
No. The published text contains no network fee, no mandatory contribution and no power to set commercial terms. Articles 191 to 193 would provide for BEREC guidelines on cooperation and a voluntary conciliation meeting convened by a national regulatory authority, with a BEREC opinion within two months. Participation is not compulsory and no payment obligation follows.
What happens to the EECC if the DNA is adopted?
Article 209 would repeal Directive (EU) 2018/1972 with effect from six months after the Regulation entered into force, together with the BEREC Regulation and the Radio Spectrum Policy Programme Decision. References to those instruments would be read as references to the Regulation. Compliance material drafted against national transposing law would need rebasing on the Regulation itself.
For advice on how the proposed Digital Networks Act affects an EU-facing telecoms business or a fixed-line asset in an EU market, contact Rob Bratby at Bratby Law.
