Virgin resumes landline switching but not to vulnerable customers

Virgin has resumed switching landline customers to digital phones, but is excluding vulnerable people and those using a telecare device.

It paused the Digital Landline Switchover programme in December following numerous reports of telecare systems not working during power cuts.

It led to the company signing a Government charter (www.snipca.com/48867) with five pledges to protect vulnerable customers as copper-based landlines are switched to digital. BT also signed the charter, along with KCOM, Shell Energy, Sky, Talktalk and Vodafone.

Virgin said that pausing the rollout has given it the time to undertake “a detailed end-to-end review of our processes” and work to “further improve them” (see www.snipca.com/50020).

It has introduced new measures which it claims makes it “easier to identify and support those who need extra help”. These include “improved” communications to customers about changes, and engineers providing “additional” support when installing digital phones in the home.

Virgin will only switch people who volunteer for it. It will also check that customers are using their landlines “in a similar way to before”, and “proactively contact anyone we suspect may be having issues”.

The company added that ultimately every customer will need to switch to digital in order “to receive a reliable landline service”. It will release further details soon on how it will help vulnerable and telecare customers switch successfully.