Copper cable scrap fetches $140 million in UK bid

The London-based BT Group plc, formerly known as British Telecom, and one of its operating units Openreach reportedly have received 105 million British pounds ($140 million) for a portion of the copper landline telephone network it is retiring.

The Guardian reports the amount as an upfront prepayment for the now surplus copper cables from the landline network BT and Openreach are replacing throughout the U.K. this decade.

The bids for copper to be recycled partially will offset the projected 15 billion pounds ($20 billion) replacement network consisting of fiber optic broadband wiring to an estimated 25 million residences in the U.K.

The report says the amount was agreed upon with an unnamed recycling company and calls the transaction “the first of its kind.”

On its websites, BT and Openreach refer frequently to the fiber optic replacement program, including mentions of towns and regions in the U.K. where the copper network has been retired and is being prepared for dismantlement and recycling.

“The traditional landline has served us well for generations, but it can’t go on indefinitely, and by December 2025, it will have reached the end of its life," Openreach's James Tappenden says.

He also notes that by the end of 2023, Openreach had stopped selling copper-based products throughout the U.K. in preparation for withdrawal at the end of 2025.

The late September report from The Guardian cites an Openreach estimate that it had recovered for recycling some 3,300 metric tons of copper by the end of March.

That same report said Openreach had “struck a deal with a bank and global recycler EMR to support the extraction and recycling of copper cable from its network until 2028.”

On its website, U.K.-based EMR Ltd. says it operates the U.K.’s largest cable granulation facility.