Major communication providers sign PSTN charter

The UK's major communication providers signed a voluntary agreement with government in December 2023 committing to safeguards for vulnerable customers, including telecare users, when they are moved onto digital services, according to a government action plan published on 11 February 2025¹. The agreement sits within the wider retirement of the analogue landline network, also known as the public switched telephone network (PSTN), which BT Group announced its intention to retire in 2017¹.

Upwards of 2 million people in the UK use telecare, most commonly personal alarm pendants or buttons, and most of these devices have historically relied on the analogue landline network¹. The government plan states that devices designed to operate on analogue landlines have a higher rate of failure when connected to digital telephone landlines, and that there have been serious incidents, including a small number of fatalities, where telecare devices have failed to work properly after the switchover¹. The plan sets out four outcomes, the first being that no telecare user will be migrated to digital landline services without the communication provider, the customer or the telecare service provider confirming that the user has a compatible and functioning telecare solution in place¹.

Several bodies and dates sit alongside the December 2023 agreement. The Telecare Action Board (TAB) was established in January 2024, with BT Consumer leading its formation¹. The network operator charter was developed in March 2024, and Ofcom introduced an incident reporting framework in spring 2024 to monitor the nature and volume of incidents, providing its first report to DSIT in July 2024¹. Which? updated its telecare guide in August 2024 to remind consumers that an analogue telecare system may not function as intended, and the Minister of State for Social Care and the Minister of State for Data Protection and Telecoms jointly wrote to directors of adult social services in September 2024¹.

The plan states that most customers can expect their telephone lines to have made the switch by the end of January 2027, and that the digital upgrade is broadly expected to be fully completed in 2027¹. It applies to England only, but notes that the digital phone switchover will affect all devolved nations¹. The plan supersedes the existing DHSC Telecare stakeholder action plan first published in December 2022 and updated in September 2023¹.

Why it matters for households

The switchover affects any household with a landline, but the plan identifies telecare users as being at particular risk, noting that telecare users are often older and/or more vulnerable people¹. The government's stated aim is that telecare users should only be migrated once a functioning telecare solution is confirmed in place, and it encourages a risk-based approach so that the most vulnerable people are protected first¹. The plan also states that government expects sellers to have stopped selling analogue telecare devices, and that buyers, including local authorities and personal buyers, should not purchase analogue devices¹. While analogue alarm devices remain in use, the plan says there should be ongoing testing on digital telephone lines and that alarm reliability should continue to be monitored¹. The plan records that government is working with the telecommunications industry on a national communication campaign to be launched in early 2025, and encourages communication providers to share migration plans with telecare service providers and customers on when and how telephone lines will be migrated¹. Households wanting background on what changes can read our guides to telecare and personal alarms when phone lines go digital and the digital landline switchover, and on extra help from phone and broadband providers.

What happens next

DHSC and DSIT will review progress against the action plan every 6 months, monitoring implementation and effectiveness, and will identify and introduce new actions as needed¹. The plan states that government will work with telecare suppliers and service providers to establish a feasible timeline for analogue telecare devices to be phased out and will communicate a deadline in the coming months¹. As announced on 3 January 2025, this includes defining and publishing a minimum set of standards¹. The plan also notes Virgin Media O2's plans to withdraw roaming services on their 2G network from October 2025, and that operators do not intend to offer 2G and 3G mobile networks beyond the end of 2033 at the latest¹.