Is BT's 'great digital switchover' a catastrophe waiting to happen?

Critics are warning that BT's "great digital switchover" is a "horror story" with "potentially catastrophic scenarios waiting to happen".

Landlines are being replaced across the country as the UK's telephone system goes digital, with the old copper network due to be switched off for good. But not everyone is sure that the modernisation project is a good idea. "The landline is dead," said The Telegraph, "and we should all be worried about what comes next."

'Miraculous vibrations'

Along with the motor car, the landline was "what made the 20th century", said the paper, as "it was both practical and romantic". There were "mid-century courtships" that involved "hours of waiting by the phone, hoping your loved one might call".

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It seemed "miraculous" that "the vibrations caused by a human voice on the other side of the ocean" were physically sent "vast distances and into the earpiece of your home phone". In contrast, "there is little romance" in the "digital garbling" that BT plans to replace it with.

In 2017, the company decided that in future, landline calls would be conducted via broadband in a "mammoth transition" named the "great digital switchover". BT plans to call time on the copper landline network by the end of 2027.

This is "arguably the biggest social project since analogue television was retired some 12 years ago", said Which?, and it will see the UK following the likes of Estonia and the Netherlands.

BT says the switchover is necessary because the current analogue system is 40 years old, is increasingly unreliable and "cannot be maintained". But "many people question the wisdom" of dismantling a functioning analogue network "upon which millions of people rely", said The Telegraph.

'Perfect storm'

The "simple genius" of the analogue landline is that it works in the event of a power cut, because it is self-powered, so the switchover could cause problems for the 1.8 million elderly and infirm people who use a home telecare device connected to a landline.

A power cut could mean you will have "no lights, no internet, no means to cook your supper and no landline to speak to a friend or call an ambulance", said The Telegraph, and, if you use a telecare pendant "that too will be useless". 

Elizabeth, 89, who lives alone and uses a personal alarm, said the switchover is "a concern for people my age" and "frightening for those who don't use technology". Justin Le Patourel, who used to work for Ofcom, warned of a "perfect storm" in the shape of a "flood scenario, when both power and mobile masts are down".

There has been a "wave of complaints" about the effect the switchover is having on "vulnerable pensioners", said This Is Money. Dennis Reed, director of Silver Voices which represents over-60s, said that the switchover is "going too far too fast". Elderly customers have lost their landline numbers, "which they have had for more than 50 years", leaving them "cut off from friends and family".

The government has called for phone providers to protect vulnerable customers and ensure they have access to emergency services during power outages. Supporters of the move said it offers benefits such as "clearer calls, the ability to make multiple calls simultaneously and the possibility of accessing your landline in other locations", said Which?. "In time", it will also allow telephone providers to "better protect their customers against scam and nuisance calls".

But the opposition is unlikely to die down any time soon. Why, asked The Telegraph, should a group of "highly profitable" private companies "force vulnerable people" to become dependent on mobile phones and the internet, "while dismantling a perfectly effective long-standing analogue system?"