Britain's digital landline migration leaves vulnerable customers without emergency services as telecoms companies sign emergency charter
Nine major providers forced to commit to protecting telecare users after serious incidents threaten access to emergency help
Nine major telecommunications companies signed an emergency charter in August 2025 that tells a troubling story. Their commitment to protect vulnerable customers during Britain's digital landline transition wasn't proactive planning—it was damage control.
The Public Switched Telephone Network charter reads like an admission of failure. BT, Virgin Media, Sky, and six other providers promised not to migrate telecare users without confirmed device compatibility. They pledged battery backup exceeding regulatory minimums. Most telling, they agreed to check customers "already migrated non-voluntarily" for undetected telecare devices.
Why would companies need to check customers already switched? Because people have already been left without working emergency alarms.
Government sources confirm "serious incidents" where telecare devices failed after digital migration, putting users at significant risk. For 2.3 million Britons who rely on personal alarms to call for help—elderly people living alone, disabled residents, those with chronic conditions—this isn't a technical inconvenience. It's potentially life-threatening.
When modernisation meets reality
Britain's shift from analogue copper landlines to digital internet services represents the largest communications infrastructure change since analogue television disappeared. Originally due for completion in December 2025, the deadline has slipped to January 2027 after repeated industry pauses and emergency interventions.
The numbers are staggering. Ofcom counted 5.2 million residential customers still on the old network by December 2024. Hundreds of thousands use telecare devices that depend on landline connections. One major telecare provider alone handles 4 million emergency calls annually.
But the migration has lurched from crisis to crisis. Virgin Media faces an Ofcom investigation for potentially breaching rules protecting vulnerable consumers and emergency service access. BT has paused non-voluntary migrations multiple times after telecare devices stopped working post-switch.
The technical challenge is fundamental. Traditional copper lines draw power from telephone exchanges, keeping basic phones working during power cuts. Digital services need functioning broadband and local electricity. When the lights go out, so does emergency access—unless customers have battery backup systems most have never heard of.
The invisible crisis
The most alarming discovery is how many vulnerable customers remain invisible to telecoms companies. BT revealed that only 25% of local authorities and telecare providers have shared data about which phone lines serve vulnerable residents. Thousands of at-risk people could be migrated without anyone knowing they need protection.
Virgin Media's Stockport pilot exposed the scale of this blind spot. Working directly with the local authority to identify telecare users, the company found 31 customers previously unknown to them—despite checking alarm monitoring centre call records. If this pattern holds nationally, thousands more vulnerable residents remain hidden from migration planners.
The data vacuum reflects institutional failure across the board. Local councils haven't systematically tracked which residents need landline-dependent emergency services. Telecare companies operate independently from telecoms providers. Many authorities simply haven't responded to requests for customer information.
Meanwhile, telecoms companies have treated migrations as routine technical upgrades rather than exercises requiring careful coordination with social services. The result: elderly residents with heart conditions or mobility issues discovering their emergency alarms don't work—only after engineers have left and analogue lines have been disconnected.
Technical realities behind the marketing
The telecommunications industry has sold digital migration as unqualified progress: clearer calls, enhanced features, more reliable networks. For most customers, this proves true. Digital systems resist weather damage better than 40-year-old copper infrastructure and integrate seamlessly with modern internet services.
But marketing promises obscure critical trade-offs for vulnerable users. Analogue lines provide automatic power during outages, drawing electricity directly from robust telephone exchange batteries. Digital systems depend entirely on customers' domestic arrangements—broadband routers, home WiFi, local power supplies.
Ofcom requires one hour of battery backup for emergency calls during power cuts. The August charter commits providers to exceed this minimum. But rural customers facing extended storm-related outages, or elderly residents who forget to charge backup devices, still face potentially deadly gaps in emergency access.
The industry argues that ageing copper networks are increasingly unreliable, with Ofcom reporting 45% more significant incidents in 2024 alone. Fair enough—but this infrastructure crisis doesn't justify migrating vulnerable customers without working alternatives.
Regulatory reaction, not prevention
The August charter represents the second major industry commitment in 18 months, following a December 2023 agreement prompted by government concern. Repeated interventions suggest the original regulatory framework was inadequate for protecting vulnerable populations during massive infrastructure change.
Ofcom's Virgin Media investigation focuses on "uninterrupted access to emergency organisations"—the regulator's acknowledgement that disruption has already occurred. But the investigation began only after problems emerged, highlighting reactive rather than preventive oversight.
The pattern is consistent: industry moves ahead with migration schedules driven by commercial pressures and aging infrastructure costs. Problems emerge affecting vulnerable customers. Regulators intervene. Politicians demand action. Companies sign commitments. The cycle repeats when implementation again prioritises efficiency over protection.
This approach might work for routine service changes. It's inadequate when essential emergency services are at stake.
What went wrong
The digital landline migration reveals how market-driven infrastructure transitions can systematically neglect vulnerable populations. Telecoms companies focused on technical efficiency and cost reduction—understandable given genuine pressures from failing copper networks and equipment shortages. But their implementation approaches treated vulnerable customer protection as an afterthought rather than a design requirement.
Local authorities and social services, meanwhile, failed to engage proactively with infrastructure changes affecting their residents. Many councils lack systematic data about which residents depend on landline-connected emergency services. Information sharing agreements that could identify vulnerable customers have been patchy and voluntary.
The regulatory framework assumed that light-touch oversight and market incentives would ensure adequate protection. This proved wrong when dealing with customers whose emergency access depends on infrastructure reliability during crises—precisely when market mechanisms work least effectively.
Broader implications
Britain's digital landline experience offers sobering lessons for other major infrastructure transitions. Smart meter rollouts, electric vehicle charging networks, 5G mobile coverage—all involve similar challenges of upgrading essential services while protecting vulnerable users.
The assumption that technological progress automatically benefits everyone has proven naive. Infrastructure modernisation creates winners and losers, with the most vulnerable often bearing disproportionate transition risks. Market forces alone won't protect people whose needs are commercially marginal but socially critical.
Future transitions need different approaches: systematic identification of vulnerable users before changes begin, mandatory rather than voluntary data sharing between public and private sectors, and regulatory frameworks that prioritise protection over implementation speed.
Uncertain progress
The August 2025 charter provides a framework for safer migration completion, but enormous challenges remain. Telecoms companies must locate hundreds of thousands of invisible vulnerable customers. Local authorities must overcome institutional inertia to share essential resident data. Technical solutions must address fundamental power-dependency issues affecting digital emergency access.
The migration will eventually finish—copper network degradation makes delay impossible indefinitely. Recent Ofcom data showing 45% more infrastructure failures in 2024 underlines the urgency. But the emergency charter signed last August stands as evidence that Britain's largest infrastructure transition in decades required multiple course corrections to avoid abandoning vulnerable citizens.
Whether these lessons will inform future infrastructure changes remains unclear. The digital landline migration has demonstrated both the complexity of protecting vulnerable populations during technological change and the inadequacy of assuming market mechanisms will ensure their safety. The next test will be whether policymakers remember these lessons when the next essential infrastructure needs upgrading.