BT will visit older customers’ houses due to landline switch-off concerns

BT has been ordered to visit older customers’ homes to check they have working emergency alarms due to safety fears over the axing of landlines.

Under new rules, companies including BT as well as other providers will be made to send an engineer to elderly and disabled people who rely on personal alarms.

Some of these alarms, or panic buttons, may have used landlines to function, so will need to be checked now that landlines are being replaced with a digital service.

Almost two million people in the UK rely on alarm buttons known as ‘telecare’ to raise the alarm if they get into difficulty, such as after having a fall at home.

They are usually worn around the neck or on the wrist and are connected to a landline to automatically send an alert to relatives or emergency services when triggered either manually or automatically.

Chris Bryant, telecoms minister, pushed major companies including BT, Virgin Media, Vodafone and Sky to extend battery back-ups beyond the existing one-hour minimum to help in the event of a power cut.

The Telegraph reported that Mr Bryant told the meeting: “Old-fashioned copper wire technology is coming to an end. If we want to stay in touch with the rest of the world we need a complete overhaul of our digital infrastructure.

“While this migration is necessary, it is vital the industry gets it right, and makes sure the most vulnerable are protected.

“This has kept me up at night and a priority that I have put at the forefront of my work since stepping into office. I am pleased telecoms companies, central government, and local authorities are working in lockstep to achieve customer safety.”

Set to be rolled out by the end of January 2027, all British Telecom (BT) lines will be upgraded to digital as the analogue system has become outdated.

Vulnerable customers who use telecare alarm systems through BT will not have their systems swapped until at least spring 2025.

This will allow time for data sharing agreements with local authorities and to allow for in-home support for telecare users.

BT will focus initially on switching customers who have not used their landline over the last 12 months, encouraging them to take a digital landline provided over full fibre broadband, where available.

The company also announced plans to offer a dedicated landline service for customers who do not use broadband from the autumn.

This will allow customers to use their landline in the same way as they do today until a digital solution becomes available or 2030, if that comes sooner.