Retired university professor Ian Kershaw sits at a table playing with a white plastic box.
The 80-year-old former modern history lecturer weighed the gadget, the size of a phone charger, in his hand before handing it to his wife Betty, 79, a former nurse, for further inspection.
On a wet October morning, they are among dozens of visitors gathering at Manchester’s St Thomas Center for a BT roadshow.
Two bouncers in purple BT t-shirts patrol the gates, making sure the crowds don’t get out of hand. They needn’t worry, as the respectable-looking older audience is here for verbal sparring only — not fistfights.
Under the imposing 30-foot-high ceiling — with its neo-Roman stucco cornice and column design — people sit at a dozen tables that have been moved out, each with four chairs.
Expert tip: Reporter Toby Waln (right) tests the digital phone with BT’s Lee Barlow
The layout and atmosphere make it feel more like a parents’ night at school than a BT event explaining to the public how phones will go digital in the next few years.
Proceedings are run by no-nonsense ‘director’ Lee Barlow – a senior ‘migration’ manager who has brought in two dozen BT experts for tutorials.
Ian and Betty are obviously no fools, but the BT staff are patiently going back to basics with the equipment on the table.
After being shown the difference between the internet and a traditional phone socket, the couple were told that the £20 ‘digital voice adapter’ they were handling was not the only option.
Ian, who has lectured at nearby Manchester University and is also a critically acclaimed biographer of Adolf Hitler, had a 20-minute chat with staff.
He and Betty then share their experience with me. Ian says: “We can handle change and the face-to-face guidance today has made it easier for us to understand.
“But it’s the vulnerable people who worry us. Fortunately, it looks like no one will just be cut off – but it’s still a problem for people living alone who don’t know about Digital Voice.
Digitization
telecommunications giant BT is switching all its ten million home phone customers to new lines over the next two years as part of a program called Digital Voice.
A total of 29 million homes in the UK will be forced to switch. This monumental challenge means that everyone will unplug their old handset cord from the traditional phone wall jack at some point — and then plug that cord into either an adapter or a new hub.
You can also replace your old setup with a new digital handset. All these options will need to be connected to the mains.
Call quality will be similar, but it uses so-called Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology instead of traditional analog signals.
To deal with this logistical headache, BT switches homes region by region and on specific days.
On: You’ll be able to replace your old setup with a new digital handset
The telecoms giant only resumed the rollout in the East Midlands this summer – after stopping it last year due to concerns that vulnerable people could be stranded during power cuts when their phone stops working.
BT says it has already solved this problem by offering free battery backups and hybrid phones to the most vulnerable that will work even in blackouts.
But as part of the task I have to educate households about what is happening on the ground.
BT says the short deadline has been set because the old copper wires used for traditional telephone calls are becoming too expensive to repair and therefore need to be replaced with fiber optic cables better suited to VoIP.
Homes are targeted with letters, cards, emails and texts in the eight weeks leading up to the move.
The face-to-face sessions are also available on BT’s traveling roadshow around the nation, with more than 200 places to visit – in town halls, ‘pop-up’ events in libraries and a traveling ‘demonstration vehicle’.
This summer he went to the Midlands, Yorkshire, Humberside, then Northern Ireland and is now in the North West.
The roadshow moves to London in November, followed by other parts of England, Scotland and Wales, all of which will be transferred by December 2025.
How it works
you plug the old phone line into a digital adapter and then plug it into an electrical outlet. Alternatively there is the latest BT hub (Smart 2) for £200 with a green socket which accepts old phone lines. Or thirdly, perhaps consumers would prefer a new £30 digital phone instead.
The expensive catch
Despite the roadshow’s assurances that all necessary digital changeover goodies will be shipped to you free of charge, customers are still responsible for ensuring they receive the upgrade equipment.
If you want a 12-month deferment because you’re vulnerable – perhaps you don’t have a mobile phone or you’re 75 or over – you may still need to call BT to explain this.
To get the ‘free’ upgrades, many are being told to visit the EE store website – the link is sent by BT when it provides details of the switch.
You may be given a code which will get you a £20 adapter free and £7 off a digital phone.
Power problem
The Achilles’ heel of digital is that it stops working when the power goes out — because VoIP requires both the Internet and electrical power to work. So those without a mobile phone are blocked if they want to call 999 emergency services.
Lee Barlow says: “Often the best solution – which we offer free to vulnerable people – is a hybrid phone. In the event of a power outage, it switches to a mobile signal.
“Our Motorola hybrid has a SIM card in the back that automatically turns on in the event of a power outage, with eight hours of reserve.”
However, for those living in rural areas with poor mobile phone reception, the BT boss admits this £80 hybrid phone may not be enough – and an £85 battery that weighs 3kg may be needed and lasted four hours.
Plugs into the modem and into the outlet. There is a “cold start” button on the front. It’s not for starting cars on a frosty winter morning, it’s for keeping the land line alive during a power outage.
These batteries are available for free if you are vulnerable. But you may need to ask BT to provide you with these extras.
Aging network: BT says the short deadline is because the old copper wires used for traditional phone calls are becoming too expensive to repair, so they need to be replaced with fiber optic cables
Help please!
Everyone I spoke to agreed that the face-to-face support where you can handle the digital device helped them understand the switch as well as getting answers to questions they couldn’t find on the BT website or waiting for him to answer a phone call.
Church minister Richard Ingham appeared with a list of questions. The 76-year-old said: “I was worried that other electrical devices that use the internet could be cut off. They assured me that this should not be the case.
Action stations
A pop-up event at Macclesfield Town Library the following day was a far more subdued affair. This once rich “silk city” is now a poor cousin of nearby Manchester.
The main game of the day was “rhyming” — “songs and rhymes for children under 5 years old.” No mention of BT. But the table was placed inside by two BT employees.
In a few hours, a dozen people showed up. But despite being less popular than the nursery rhyme song, BT attracted more interest than the jigsaw puzzle swap offered at an adjacent table.
Jimmy Jones, 78, and his wife, Janet, 76, were among the first to attend – having been invited by email a few weeks earlier.
Retired administrator Janet says: “There has to be a catch somewhere as BT really only care about making money.”
She adds: “Staff say they send free adapters without asking. But of course we pay for these extras in our high bills. We’ll ditch our landline and stick to our cell phones if digital voice ends up costing more. BT says Digital Voice won’t cost customers more – for now – and that call sound quality shouldn’t suffer.
Retired computer programmer Steve Hull, 74, wanted to know if Digital Voice could sound different over copper wires rather than fiber optic cables. “I was reassured that it should run on traditional copper lines and not affect internet speeds,” he says.
Joan Payne, 75, a volunteer at the local hospice, came to share what she found out with her neighbors.
She says: “A friend was supposed to switch to Digital Voice today but hasn’t received an adapter or upgraded hub yet, so her old phone will work. The staff here say it should have been shipped. I hope their words are backed up with action.
Am I sold?
The BT Digital Voice roadshow is well worth a visit – but it also reveals how little many of us understand about the rollout that will affect everyone in the UK over the next two years.
And despite the slick sales talk, the reality is that these “free” gadgets can only come if you ask for them.
BT enjoyed pre-tax profits of £1.7bn in the year to March. With all that money splashing around – and a 14.4% increase in phone rental prices in March as well – you wonder why the company doesn’t offer more face-to-face support.
For the most vulnerable who cannot attend such an event, including those who live alone and have health pendants that may stop working after the digital switchover for BT landlines, this is a huge concern.
If BT offered better help through its customer support lines – answering phone calls quickly, having help centers able to address specific issues and real experts rather than online ‘chatbots’ – the roadshow might not be vital.
And I can’t help but fear that unless the circus show knocks on your front door, many customers will still miss the message.
A major concern is that some of the most vulnerable customers may only find out about the switch when their phone stops ringing.
So while it might sound impressive on paper, even with stoppages in a few hundred locations, BT is paying little more than lip service to its ten million customers.
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