Phone switch-off will ‘leave people unable to call 999’

Age UK has warned that vulnerable people will be unable to call for help in emergencies once BT replaces its copper landlines with internet phones in 2025.

It raised awareness of the problem after February’s storms caused massive power cuts, leaving millions unable to connect to the internet nor charge their phones.

Caroline Abrahams, a director at the charity, said people who depended on landlines were “being abandoned” and called for phone companies to put safety measures in place.

She said that the disruption caused has served “as a reminder of how increasingly dependent we are on all these connections”.

Around 1.5 million BT customers have already been switched from a copper landline to VOIP services. Sky and Virgin have also moved many customers. Telecoms regulator Ofcom says that 15 per cent of landlines are now supplied over the internet, up from eight per cent last year.

It has told phone providers that it must give customers dependent on landlines a free alternative. These include a ‘back-up’ mobile phone to use in emergencies, and free ‘charging packs’ to power internet routers when they’re unable to get electricity.

However, storms Dudley, Eunice and Franklin have exposed flaws in this system. Some customers who lost electricity said their back-up mobiles ran out of power within hours. Others said that they had not been given charging packs, leaving them completely cut off.

As a more reliable alternative, BT is working on a hybrid home phone that has a SIM card and a battery that lasts longer than typical mobile devices. Together with satellite broadband and 4G-powered phones, these solutions will ensure customers are able to make calls without electricity, it said.

•How

to convert your home to VOIP – Issue 628 out Weds 30 March