My 101-year-old father was left without a landline and a functioning panic button after BT switched his phone service from analogue to digital without warning us. BT had informed us that the contract was about to finish, and asked me to contact them about renewing. I duly called and was, at no time, advised to contact the panic button provider, or told of the possible need for adaptors to connect analogue phones to the new service. After four hours on the phone to BT when the service failed, I was informed that digital adaptors were required to ensure our phones worked. Four days later, these had still not arrived and BT said it was unable to expedite the delivery. My father, who is registered blind and has only 30% hearing, was without his panic button for five days until the care line team attended and got it working.
TB, Birmingham
Your father’s predicament shows the human cost of the transfer of analogue telephone lines to an internet-based service. Since September, customers who start, or renew, contracts have been switched to Digital Voice, which requires a broadband router. However, the new technology poses a threat to vulnerable users since digital landlines do not function during power cuts and some fall buttons are incompatible.
