Graham Stuart, MP for Beverley and Holderness, wrote to BT Openreach to raise concerns about BT’s new Digital Voice roll-out in the event of a power cut, which could leave vulnerable people unable to call on the Lifeline service.
Digital Voice is intended to replace ageing analogue landlines by 2025 but needs both broadband and power to work. BT will now pause the rollout as a direct result of the concerns raised by Graham and others, while they review the resilience of mobile masts and install additional backup generators.
A BT spokesperson said, “I know that you’ve been in touch with us recently, on the back of concerns raised by some of your constituents about this change. We’ve listened to the feedback from our customers and realise we underestimated the impact that this technology upgrade could have for some of them. People who live in power cut-prone areas or places with poor mobile reception worry that in the event of a power cut, they will not be able to call anyone to get help.”
BT have taken the decision to pause all further Digital Voice switch-overs for customers who don’t want to move to the new technology straight away. They will restart the programme once they have key products in place to provide their customers with more resilient connectivity when they need it.
Graham Stuart MP said, “I am absolutely delighted that my efforts on behalf of my constituents have made a difference and welcome that BT is pausing the roll-out until they have sorted out the power problems so that services like Lifeline will still be available for vulnerable people when they need it most.”
