BT pauses digital phone rollout but decision 'too late' for some Northumberland residents

The rollout, which saw copper landlines replaced in favour of fibre-optic cables, resulted in some customers in rural Northumberland being unable to call emergency services during last autumn’s storms.

But Chrissie Buckley, from Hepple, a hamlet in the Coquet Valley west of Rothbury, said: “It’s too late for us. BT have told us that it’s impossible for them to replace our landline and there are lots of other people in our position.”

She was left without phone capability for several days during Storm Arwen, as were others in the area, whose landlines had already been converted to Digital Voice which requires an internet connection to work.

"We were subsequently supplied with a battery pack for emergency power supplies but when we had more storms in January that only lasted for an hour so we're still worried,” said Chrissie.

According to Ofcom regulations, network operators (BT, Sky etc) are required to ensure vulnerable customers can continue to access communication with the emergency services in the event of a power cut, and are responsible for providing those customers with a back-up battery pack providing a minimum power supply lasting one hour.

Berwick MP Anne-Marie Trevelyan had concerns that many customers did not know about this requirement, perhaps did not have a back-up battery, and in any case felt one hour’s charge was not sufficient for lengthier power outages experienced across Northumberland, least of all during major storms such as Storm Arwen.

She got in touch with Openreach and met them early in 2022 to ask them to pause the rollout while alternative systems were put in place to vastly improve resilience.

Ms Trevelyan met with DCMS Minister Julia Lopez on Thursday to talk about why this is so important to Northumberland residents.

She said: “I was grateful to the Minister for her time to talk through this issue that is so important to our rural communities. She has asked BT to work on how to ensure their systems – including the newer digital VOIP landline systems – are resilient in the event of power outages.

"I stressed how important this is for our rural areas. Ofcom’s one hour battery back-up industry standard might suit more urban areas where power outages are rare and short-lived, but they simply don’t cut it here.

"Storm Arwen was an extreme example of that, and I am pleased that message from me and other colleagues has been received loud and clear by Government, industry and regulator.

“Minister Lopez also set out the work she and her team have been leading on resilience of the wider network, and ensuring all residents, including those living rurally, have access to decent broadband and to mobile phone signal.

"Northumberland is the top priority area for Project Gigabit, which will see the Government subsidise connections – work is due to begin in the autumn after contracts are awarded this summer.

"She also updated me on the Shared Rural Network which will see the north east reach 98% mobile 4G coverage.

"I was clear to the Minister and her team that I will be seeking frequent update meetings to ensure these timelines are adhered to. It is great that Northumberland has been prioritised, and I will keep pushing until these impressive promises are delivered.”

Sarah Lee, director of policy at the Countryside Alliance, added: “It may seem like an obvious transition for those that don’t rely on their landline telephone, but the bleak reality for too many living in rural areas is they are not yet in a position to move over to digital to carry out every day functions, even if they wanted to.

“We have been clear that those who live and work in the countryside must not be subject to a communications blackout and are pleased to see that BT has listened to the concerns of many of its customers.”

BT and other telecom companies had pledged to equip all homes with digital "voice over internet phones" by 2025 as part of an update to the UK's communication infrastructure.

Marc Allera, chief executive of BT's consumer division, said: “Last year, we began our major rollout of Digital Voice – BT’s new home phone service that will mean calls are made over our new broadband network, rather than the old analogue network which is over 40 years old.

“Put simply, instead of plugging a home phone into a wall-mounted phone socket that people have done for decades, customers will connect their handset to their broadband router.

“Doing this will replace old analogue technology that is fast becoming obsolete with a new digital service that will provide crystal-clear calls, prevent the vast majority of scam calls and ultimately will be more efficient on electricity usage making it better for the environment.

“It is, in short, a necessary upgrade to customers’ phones in their homes that will bring long term benefits and a service fit for the future.

“However, we underestimated the disruptive impact this upgrade would have on some of our customers. With hindsight we went too early, before many customers – particularly those who rely more heavily on landlines – understood why this change is necessary and what they needed to do.

“We also recognise we have more work to do on getting better back-up solutions in place for when things disrupt the service like storms and power cuts.

“We got this part of our programme wrong and for that, we’re sorry.

“The huge disruption caused by recent Storms Arwen and Eunice brought this into sharper focus, when people – including many of our customers in rural areas – needed to get in touch with loved ones during power outages.

"While many lines were cut in those storms, including the older phone lines, as well as power lines – we do recognise that for some customers, making calls would not have been possible with a broadband-only connection.

“We have listened to our customers’ concerns and we have more work to do to improve the resilience of the network, working with energy providers on faster power restoration and providing better back-up solutions for customers.

“Digitising the UK’s future is a national mission, and we’re determined to get it right.

“So, we are pausing all further Digital Voice switch-overs for customers who don’t want to move to the new technology straight away. This will give us the opportunity to get better, more resilient back-up options in place for customers who need or want them. It will also mean we can ensure all of our customers are aware this change is coming – and why it is needed.

“This will be a pause to part of the programme, we will aim to re-start once we have key solutions in place to provide our customers with more resilient connectivity.”