UK landline switchover: MPs warn of emergency risks in remote areas

UK landline operators aim to finish moving customers from traditional copper-wire phone lines to an internet-based network by the end of January 2027, according to the BBC. The change, which uses a technology known as Voice over Internet Protocol, has prompted warnings from MPs that people in remote areas could be left unable to contact help in an emergency.

The UK government and the landline operators say the digital service will be more reliable. Ministers say the existing analogue network is becoming increasingly unreliable. The traditional network, unlike digital services, does not rely on mains electricity and keeps working during a power cut.

Torcuil Crichton, the Labour MP for the Western Isles constituency of Na h-Eileanan an Iar, said that when the power goes out, people in his area do not have a phone or internet, and often have no mobile signal either. BT Openreach has been giving back-up battery packs to vulnerable customers, which can keep landline phones running for an hour or more. Mr Crichton said those packs were not adequate, and that mobile phone providers cannot keep a signal going during storms.

Markus Campbell-Savours, the Labour MP for Penrith and Solway, raised the case of an elderly person living alone in an isolated valley in the Lake District. He said that if a storm knocked out a router's power, its battery back-up and the mobile mast, that person could have no way to raise an alarm. Julian Lewis, the Conservative MP, raised a different concern: that there is no back-up system if digital phone services go down in a cyber attack or another emergency.

MPs representing remote parts of the UK urged Dan Jarvis, the security minister, to make sure that scrapping the copper-wire network does not leave communities more exposed in a storm or other emergency. Mr Jarvis leads the government's Be Ready emergency-preparedness campaign. He said MPs' concerns from the West Country would be addressed at a government resilience summit due to take place in Cornwall next month. He also promised to raise concerns about telecoms firms with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

Under the Be Ready campaign, people who have not yet moved to a digital network are advised to contact their landline provider. Vulnerable customers, such as telecare users, must be given a free back-up battery unit by their communications provider. Campaigners have called for the switchover deadline to be extended from 2027 to 2030, the Guardian reported in May.

The government has also advised the public to keep three days of emergency supplies at home, Reuters reported on 23 October.