BT have confirmed that they will pause all further Digital Voice switch-overs for customers who don’t want to move to the new technology at the moment.
BT had initially taken the decision to retire its traditional copper telephone network by December 2025. This meant that all telephone calls would be delivered over digital technology called Voice over Internet Protocol (‘VoIP’), using a broadband connection.
Concerns were raised with Ben Lake MP by many people living in rural areas in his constituency with no mobile coverage about the frightening prospect of having no means of communicating with the outside world were they to lose their broadband connection.
The huge disruption caused by recent Storms Arwen and Eunice brought these concerns into sharper focus, when people – including many of Ben Lake’s constituents in Ceredigion – 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 – for some customers, making calls would not have been possible with a broadband-only connection.
Ben Lake MP immediately raised concerns with BT, DCMS and OFCOM on behalf of his constituents and in response to BT's announcement today he said:
“I greatly welcome BT’s decision to pause their Digital Voice switch-over programme. I know that many of my constituents were deeply worried about the prospect of losing their copper landlines and I am very grateful to BT for listening to their customers’ concerns and taking such prompt action.
“We need to vastly improve our connectivity infrastructure in Ceredigion and ensure that rural premises in particular have more resilient back-up options in place if this programme is to be restarted in the future.”
BT have confirmed that they will only restart the Digital Voice switch-over programme once they have key products in place to provide their customers with more resilient connectivity when they need it.
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