BT is abandoning a pledge to ensure phone users over the age of 70 can keep their landlines and not be forced to use controversial new digital lines for 12 months – and are promptly signing them up.
The telecoms giant was forced to suspend its initial rollout last year after an investigation by our sister newspaper The Mail on Sunday alerted industry watchdog Ofcom to operational shortcomings, including the way customers can’t use their phone lines in the event of a power outage.
It was only restarted after an advisory group agreed to give older homeowners the chance to delay installation for 12 months so they could get to grips with the new technology and not feel coerced by the move.
Among those involved in this Digital Voice Advisory Group was the action organization for the elderly, Silver Voices.
Aaron Comber, from Steyning, Sussex, fears his 75-year-old mother will become isolated if she is forced to move
The switch to traditional copper landlines will be rolled out across the UK at various times over the coming year
But it now feels cheated because after agreeing the deal, BT is quietly increasing the age from which you can defer installation to 75.
Dennis Reed, director of Silver Voices, said: ‘We were part of that advisory group and agreed not to oppose the resumption of the rollout as long as the 70-year-olds are catered for during the change. We have been fooled and BT has broken this promise.’
Although BT is notifying homes of the change – with cards and letters sent through the post, emails and texts – it is leaving it up to customers to put this on hold.
The new digital phones must be plugged into a wall socket and require a broadband connection to work – using so-called Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology instead of analogue signals on copper lines.
Six million adults do not have a mobile phone and 1.5 million households do not use the internet.
Digital Voice requires customers to use a new handset (or adapter for old phones) that plugs into an internet and wall socket.
If you don’t use the internet, BT says it will send technicians to adjust phone lines for free – and provide a new digital handset and adapter for free.
BT charges £85 for powerpack batteries for those worried about being stuck in a power outage, but for vulnerable customers it should provide them for free. Phone users should not notice any change in sound quality.
BT wants to switch 10 million customers to digital over the next two years. Nationally, the government wants all 29 million households to embrace digital technology.
BT initially agreed to give anyone aged 70 or over the chance to delay the switch for a year to give customers time to adapt to the technology.
Digital Voice is being rolled out region by region. About two million homes have already switched.
In July it focused on the East Midlands and in August it began contacting people in Yorkshire and Humberside, giving them a four-week warning that they would be next. Northern Ireland is also targeted.
Properties in the North West and London will be contacted this autumn. Customers are initially targeted with emails and text messages, along with cards placed through their letterbox. BT holds regional town hall meetings.
BT has announced the next phase of its digital voice switchover, scrapping the old copper network in favor of broadband phone calls
BT memorably used Maureen Lipman as ‘Beattie’ (pictured) to promote scheduled fixed services in the 1980s
Jackie Carlton, 70, from Kilham in the East Riding of Yorkshire, was told she and husband Allan, 71, would be transferring in the summer, but were given no information on how to delay the move because Jackie could be classed as vulnerable. because she has cancer.
The retired librarian says: ‘The hospital tried to call to make an appointment but the landline had switched to digital telephony without my knowledge so nothing got through. We live in a rural area with power outages and poor cell reception, so I rarely use a cell phone. My experience shows how this switch puts people’s lives at risk.’
BT says it will ‘not proactively change’ vulnerable homes, but admits it is up to the customer to ask the telecoms giant to give them a 12-month extension.
Ruth Comber, 75, from Steyning, West Sussex, said: ‘As a widow I am completely dependent on my landline. I have a mobile phone, but where I live the reception is so poor that I could use pigeon post for faster communication. This switch fills me with fear.’
Her son Aaron, 53, a former pub owner, said: ‘Anyone in a rural area without mobile reception will be completely isolated if there is a power cut.’
After the switch, the old phone lines simply disappear – and those unaware of the switch may not realize what has happened until the calls stop or they can no longer make calls.
Others affected include people who wear health pendants or have a home alarm system connected to the local fire department, as these usually stop working as well.
Neville Withers, 84, from Acton, west London, said: ‘There are many like me with mobility problems. I have a button on my wrist that I can press in case of an emergency. It is routed to a care center via a traditional landline. If the button fails, it could be a matter of life and death.”
Other telecom providers involved in the digital rollout include Virgin Media. It has five million customers, including retired psychiatric nurse Trevor Bailey.
The 73-year-old said: ‘I have a perfectly good landline that is being changed to a system I don’t want. I can’t get Virgin on the phone without it trying to connect me to an ‘expert chatbot’ computer. That’s why I’m struggling to reach a real person who can explain to me that I don’t want to switch.’
Virgin says it can supply vulnerable customers with phones in the event of power cuts with eight hours of backup time. It also claims it will provide technical support for up to six months before the change – with engineer visits.
BT said: ‘We are testing the rollout of digital voice to a limited number of broadband customers over the age of 70 who live in urban areas and are ready to make the switch. The initial results show that 98 percent of customers between the ages of 70 and 74 have chosen to switch.’
It said the upgrade to ‘future-proof landlines’ was essential as existing technology is ‘fast becoming outdated’.
Some links in this article may be affiliate links. If you click on it, we may earn a small commission. That helps us fund This Is Money and keep it free to use. We do not write articles to promote products. We do not allow a commercial relationship to compromise our editorial independence.