COULD THIS NEW DIGITAL PHONE convince you ditching your landline WON’T leave you cut off in an emergency?
That’s what BT’s promising at hundreds of UK roadshows as it turns off the analogue signal. We join worried residents to quiz the experts . . .
cut. These battery packs are available for free if you are vulnerable. But it may be necessary to ask BT to supply you with these extras.
HELP, PLEASE!
EVERYONE I spoke to agreed that having face-to-face support where you can handle the digital device helped them understand the switch, as well as get answers to questions they could not find on the BT website or waiting for it to answer a phone call. Church minister richard Ingham turned up with a list of queries. The 76-year-old says: ‘It concerned me that other electric devices that use the internet could be disrupted. They have reassured me this should not be the case.’
ACTION STATIONS
A pop-up event in Macclesfield town library the following day was a far more subdued affair. This once wealthy ‘silk town’ is now the poor cousin of nearby Manchester.
The main draw of the day was ‘rhymetime’ — ‘songs and rhymes for the under-5s’. no mention of BT. But a table was being set up inside by two BT staff.
A dozen people turned up over a couple of hours. But although less popular than a nursery rhyme sing- song, BT attracted more interest than a jigsaw swap being offered on an adjacent table.
Jimmy Jones, 78, and his wife, Janet, 76, were among the first to attend — having been invited via email a couple of weeks earlier.
retired administrator Janet says: ‘There has to be a catch somewhere as BT is only really interested in making money.’
She adds: ‘ The staff say they send free adapters without asking. But, of course, we pay for these extras in our high bills. We will drop our landline and stick to our mobile phones if Digital voice ends up costing more.’ BT says Digital voice will not cost customers more — for now — and that the sound quality of calls should not suffer.
retired computer programmer Steve Hull, 74, wanted to know if Digital voice might sound different through copper wires rather than fibre optic cables. ‘I was reassured that it should work on traditional copper lines and not affect internet speeds,’ he says.
Joan payne, 75, a volunteer for the local hospice, came so she could share what she had found out with her neighbours.
She says: ‘one friend was due to transfer to Digital voice today — but has still not received an adapter or upgraded hub, so her old phone will work. Staff here say it should have been sent. I hope their words will be backed up by action.’
AM I SOLD?
A BT Digital voice roadshow is worth attending — but it also exposes how little many of us understand the rollout that will affect everyone in the uK in the next two years. And despite the slick sales talk, the reality is that those ‘free’ gadgets might only arrive if you demand them.
BT enjoyed pre-tax profits of £1.7 billion in the year to March. With all that cash sloshing around — and a 14.4 pc hike in phone rental prices also in March — you wonder why the company is not offering more face-to-face support. For the most vulnerable who cannot attend such an event, including those who live alone and have health pendants that may stop working after the digital switch for BT landlines, that’s a huge concern.
If BT offered better help through customer support lines — answering phone calls promptly, having help centres able to address specific issues, and real experts rather than online ‘chatbots’ — the roadshow might not be vital.
And I cannot help but fear that unless the roadshow circus knocks on your front door, many customers will still miss the message.
of major concern is that some of the most vulnerable customers might learn about the switch only when their phone stops ringing.
So while it may sound impressive on paper, even with stop-offs at a few hundred venues, BT is providing nothing more than lip service to its ten million customers.