Ofcom Monitors UK Internet Phone Providers Over 999 Concerns UPDATE

Ofcom has today opened a new monitoring programme, which will pay special attention to checking whether internet phone providers, such as those offered by dedicated Voice-over-IP (VoIP) and broadband providers (ISP), are ensuring the availability of access to emergency services (999) during power cuts.

The United Kingdom is, like much of the rest of Europe, rapidly moving to withdraw its legacy of older copper-based phone lines (e.g. Openreach expects to withdraw the old PSTN platform by December 2025). The change reflects the unavoidable move toward pure Internet Protocol (IP) based networks, as well as the new generation of Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband infrastructure.

The fact that very few people today make much use of their landline phone (most prefer mobile, VoIP and internet messaging) is another reason for the shift. But as this transition occurs – not just at BT, but across multiple ISP and phone providers – a growing number of people are also beginning to realise that the old copper phone services did have one advantage – being powered by the exchange meant they continued to work during power cuts.

By comparison, pure IP based, and full fibre networks are dependent upon a working broadband router and Optical Network Terminal (ONT) in order to deliver the phone service, which naturally runs into a problem during power cuts – this can be particularly problematic if you live in an area with poor or no mobile signal.

The New Monitoring Programme

The regulator requires that such phone providers “must take all necessary measures to ensure uninterrupted access” to the emergency services (i.e. police, fire, ambulance and coastguard). Since the end of 2018, Ofcom’s “expectation” on this front has been to “recommend only providing battery backup or other protection facilities to vulnerable consumers” (here).

However, such battery systems only need to be good enough to work for a minimum of 1 hour, and there are concerns that not all network operators are either providing such solutions or doing an effective job of identifying “vulnerable” customers (to be fair, this is a tricky thing to get right and adds costs). Ofcom will now be keeping a much closer eye on all this (here), which in our view is something that should have started in 2018/19.

Ofcom’s Statement

Calls made over broadband using VoIP-based technology will not function in a power cut unless additional solutions are in place, as the broadband equipment at the premise requires mains power to work.

Ofcom rules state that providers must still offer a way for landline-dependent customers to contact the emergency services, and they should take steps to identify who these customers are and offer them a suitable solution. We also provided guidance to industry on how they can ensure uninterrupted access to emergency organisations during a power outage for customers using digital voice technology.

In the first stage of our monitoring programme, Ofcom will gather information from a range of alternative network providers and VoIP providers. This will help us understand what they are doing to ensure that they comply with their obligations. We will also be engaging with industry to ensure that providers understand their obligations and how they apply to businesses providing Fibre to the Premises services.

Naturally, the greatest responsibility here must fall on the provider of your physical broadband line, since it is their kit that needs to stay active during a power cut in order for IP based phone services to function. But end-users can also purchase their own battery backup solutions, independent of an ISP (Solutions for Battery Backup of Fibre Broadband and VoIP Phone), if they so desire.

At present, BT seems to be the only major operator to be acting on such concerns, as evidenced by their decision to pause the rollout of their new Digital Voice system earlier this year (here). However, such issues are a problem for most broadband and phone providers, so it’s wrong to focus purely on BT. But equally, there may be limits to what can be done on this front.

It’s also important to recognise that serious power outages, lasting days or weeks, would simply be too expensive for providers to cover with a battery system and may sometimes impact the operator too (i.e. having a battery may not help during extreme cases). Like it or not, it won’t be possible to completely replicate the kind of security that the old legacy phone service provided, but then 4G mobile coverage is expected to reach 95% by 2025.

The other question mark is over what happens when customers have more than one line, possibly with different providers. Some installations could become an ugly mess of wires and batteries.

UPDATE 12th July 2022

Ofcom’s focus above is clearly on landline replacement services, which is something they do confirm, but we’ve been informed that ‘Over The Top’ (OTT) style VoIP / SIP providers (e.g. those that might not sell any physical hardware products, be they battery or handsets etc.) might still be caught if they meet the definition of a Publicly Available Telephone Service (PATS).

The regulator said the rules apply to all providers of a Publicly Available Telephone Service (PATS) and all providers of a Public Electronic Communications Network (PECN) over which a PATS is provided. But how far this will actually impact OTT providers is still a little unclear, as Ofcom intend to monitor compliance on a case-by-cases basis.

All of this is important because there’s a lot of talk about power cuts and end-user battery backup above, which obviously goes well beyond what most OTT VoIP/SIP providers deliver (software/virtual only). But if Ofcom were to start requiring that they offer battery backup solutions to customers too, then this raises a question mark over how – in a sea of hundreds of different router, handset and ONT combinations (with different power requirements by different broadband ISPs) – such operators can deliver a rules-compliant solution.

However, we understand that the regulator will consider issues of technical feasibility when deciding such things, as well as whether it’s within the provider’s reasonable control to take the measures set out in their guidance.