Britain’s biggest telecoms brands have agreed to temporarily suspend plans to switch customers from traditional landlines to a broadband-powered phone network.

Analogue landlines are scheduled to be switched off nationwide in 2025, with the biggest telecom providers pushing ahead to switch customers in the coming months.

Britain’s biggest telecoms brands have agreed to temporarily suspend plans to switch customers from traditional landlines to a broadband-powered phone network following a number of “serious incidents” involving the failure of personal alarms.

Analogue landlines are scheduled to be switched off nationwide in 2025, with the biggest telecom providers pushing ahead to switch customers in the coming months. However, the process hasn’t been without issues.

Technology Secretary Michelle Donelan summoned the UK’s leading telecoms firms including Sky, BT, Virgin Media 02, and TalkTalk following incidents when telecare devices – personal alarms used by an estimated 1.8 million elderly and vulnerable people and designed to be activated in a health emergency or after a fall – failed because of digital landlines.

All UK phone and broadband providers are forging ahead with plans to upgrade millions of people from traditional copper phone lines to digital landlines ahead of the nationwide switch-off in 2025. BT, which is the single biggest provider in the UK, has branded its broadband-powered landline as Digital Voice.

When switching to the system, BT promises clearer calls and better protection from fraud and spam calls.

If you already have a full-fibre broadband plan with BT, nothing will change as the company has offered Digital Voice to fibre customers as standard for many years. BT stopped selling copper-based products to all new customers back in September.

If you’re unsure whether you’re already using the newer system, the easiest way to check whether you’re already using the new system is to look for “Digital Voice” branding on the handset or check whether it’s plugged into the back of your Wi-Fi router or a landline socket.

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