Telecare and Care Alarms
What to do if you or someone you know has a telecare or care alarm
If you have a a telecare unit, care alarm, personal pendant alarm, lifeline or any other medical device that connects to the phone line or are aware of someone who has then:
- Contact the telecommunication provider that supplies the phone and broadband service making them aware of these devices and the current circumstances. This will help ensure extra checks and processes are put in place while they migrate you to the digital voice or landline service.
It is advised to contact them in advance (even if they have not yet contacted you) and make sure they record this on your account. - Contact the adult social care services or provider of your telecare unit, care alarm, personal pendant alarm, lifeline or medical device. Ask them to check that the equipment they supplied you is compatible with a digital landline or voice service.
- ⚠️ On the day of the move to a digital landline or digital voice service, your telecommunication provider with your telecare/care alarm/pendant alarm/lifeline/medical equipment provider should ensure that the unit and equipment fully work with the new digital landline or digital voice service.
Ensure back-up or alternative method of communication in an event of a powercut
Make sure the telecommunication provider and provider of your telecare unit, care alarm, personal pendant alarm, lifeline or medical device have put in place an appropriate solution to allow communication to continue in an event such as a power cut.
Read more about what your provider should be offering and our guidance around making emergency calls in a powercut 👇
Stop Sell
What is a Stop Sell of traditional analogue landline phone services? From September 5th 2023 Openreach, the company that builds and runs the UK broadband network for over 650 providers including Sky, TalkTalk and BT is introducing a nationwide stop-sell of traditional analogue landline phone services. How does Openreach describe a Stop Sell? To help us prepare for the digital upgrade we’ll also stop selling analogue phone lines to new customers in a phased way by September 2023 across the UK which means in some locations where we’re building FTTP, we may stop selling WLR before that time. We use the term stop sell to signify stopping the sale of certain copper-based Openreach products. When Openreach is planning to withdraw a product, there is an intermediate stage called stop sell whereby further sales of that particular product are stopped. This ensures that the total number of lines remaining on that…
BT Digital Voice Rollout
What is BT Digital Voice? BT Digital Voice is BT’s Consumer Digital (Internet) based voice service that is being rolled out as the replacement to their current analogue (PSTN) fixed line home phone service. This is being rolled out as the current analogue (PSTN) phone system is being closed by January 2027. For more information on the nationwide switch over visit our homepage landlinesgo.digital How is BT Digital Voice being rolled out? BT is currently rolling out BT Digital Voice to existing customers in phases and new customers will be placed on Digital Voice by default if they have chosen to take out a home phone service. What are the current phases? Currently, BT and other organisations are running roadshows throughout the South West, South East, Wales and Scotland.BT Digital Voice roadshows and events can be found at: https://www.bt.com/broadband/digital-voice/events Find a Community Engagement Event Near You You can also use…
Businesses are you ready for the Digital Line Switchover?
Do you have any of the following? Do these connect to your property’s phone line today? If so you need to get these upgraded today so they are compatible with Internet based voice services (Voice over Internet Protocol/VoIP). Sometimes this is also called Digital Voice or Internet Calls. From September 2023 you’ll only be able to order an Internet-based voice service from communication providers and mass migrations will commence to move customers off the current system (PSTN/WLR) used today. The current phone system (PSTN/WLR) will be closed by January 2027. What should I do? Now’s the time to create an inventory of what devices and systems you use in your offices. If you provide products and services to your clients and customers you need to check to see if they’ll work, when lines migrate from analogue to digital ones. You should contact your communication provider and providers of such devices…
How to make calls in a power cut
In a Power Cut you’ll need an alternative way to power the digital landline or have another way to make calls Your communication provider should offer you a solution to make emergency calls in an event such as a power cut such as some form of battery backup or use of an alternative device such as a mobile or hybrid handset. You can also order devices from online stores such as Amazon that can help. This page will detail some more ways that can help in these situations. Internet/VoIp systems rely on your mains power as it’s needed to power your router so the Internet connection can be established. The old PSTN system carried 50 volts down the copper line along with the analogue phone signal and the power was supplied down it from batteries and generators from your local exchange. As you move off the PSTN system you will no…
Digital landlines is still going ahead by 2025….
The PSTN is closing in 2025. BT Consumer pause their mass migration but the other 600+ continue to move to digital landlines.
Openreach – Retiring our copper network
The bigger picture of what is happening in the UK’s Telecoms Industry Openreach are rolling out their Ultrafast full fibre infrastructure to 25 million homes and businesses by December 2026. As exchange areas reach a particular coverage of this service being available then a stop sell of copper based services will be applied to that area. This means that communication providers such as Sky, BT, EE, PlusNet and Talktalk (to name a few) will only be able to offer fibre based products and services. Find out more how Openreach are retiring their copper network at https://www.openreach.com/fibre-broadband/retiring-the-copper-network Virgin Media are also rolling out their own gigabit and full fibre networks along with many AltNets (Alternative Network Providers) There are three main programmes that go hand in hand in trying to retire the copper infrastructure. They are: Moving to all IP and VoIP/Internet Based fixed line voice services. The current PSTN is…