Councils Warn of Problems as Analogue UK Phone Services End
The Local Government Association, which represents councils across England and Wales, has warned that traffic lights, cash machines and vital telecare equipment used by almost 2 million vulnerable people may “cease to operate” when analogue copper phone services are withdrawn in 2025 – unless more support is provided.
As a reminder, there are two different, but related, phases to moving away from the old copper line infrastructure and these sometimes cross-over. The first starts with the gradual migration of traditional analogue voice (PSTN) services on copper lines to digital all-IP technologies (e.g. SOGEA), which is due to complete by December 2025 (this is what the council is talking about). The second relates to the gradual replacement of copper with full fibre (FTTP) lines, but that will take many years long to complete.
One catch with this is that a lot of systems designed for the older analogue phone era (e.g. personal alarms) don’t always work with modern Internet Protocol (IP) based digital phone services, which require you to have a working broadband connection. Sometimes those systems can be fixed by simply adding an Analogue Terminal Adapter (ATA), but in other cases the setup may need to be completely replaced.
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The LGA says councils will need greater support from the UK government for this transition to be successful, such as with data sharing (i.e. protecting privacy), testing, awareness and funding to prepare their residents for the switchover, alongside better coordination from the government. A survey conducted by the LGA found that almost 40% of councils responding do not yet know how they will pay for the move to digital telecare.
On top of that, councils are also concerned about the “huge lack of awareness among residents about the incoming changes” and the need for government to spread the message through communications campaigns, including adequate funding to support the above.
The LGA is also “demanding reassurance” from home broadband ISPs and phone providers that they will do all they can to support their vulnerable customers through the switchover process and beyond, including “ensuring power back-up support to keep devices running when PSTN is switched off” (a lot of this is already happening).
Cllr Mark Hawthorne, LGA Digital Connectivity spokesperson, said:
“Councils have a critical role to play in the digital switchover which is fast approaching and will impact on a whole range of vital services, including in adult social care.
Our survey shows that unless action is taken now to support councils to help their residents and suppliers with this change, we face the prospect of serious disruption to people’s lives, including most urgently those who use personal devices such as alarms and fall detectors to stay safe in their own homes.
While we want to see every part of the country benefit from the digital rollout, we need to make sure no one is left behind and potentially at risk, whether it be someone living at home on their own in need of support, or people going about their daily lives waiting at the traffic lights or withdrawing cash from an ATM.
Expanding high-speed digital access is essential to economic growth, but it should not be at the expense of those who are older and more vulnerable, who rely on their devices and other services to maintain their independence, safety and wellbeing.”
We can’t help but feel that the issues being raised by the LGA are something that the government should have more proactively moved to tackle several years ago, rather than risk leaving it till the last minute. Nothing that the LGA raises above is new or surprising, it’s been known about since the 2025 date was first coined (example). But local authorities clearly still have a lot of work to do, and time is fast running out to adapt.
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Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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it’s not like these organisations and their suppliers haven’t had literally years of advance warning to build a plan for this…
Well said.
For the first few years of which, battery backups were going to be made available to ensure service during power outages.
But ofc their cost (both install and maintenance) made this prohibitive once it was realised how high it was.
Yeah, Openreach have been advising *consumers* about this for a couple of years via radio ads at the very least. I would assume this year and into 2024 the ads will become a lot more frequent too, possibly maildrops to customers in fibre build out areas too.
A council has no excuse, they know it’s coming.
Do the local government associations even have a role here?
Surely their job is to ensure the services they provide work.
The general population will be supported by their telecoms provider under the supervision of Ofcom.
VOIP switchover has had a long notice, if there are traffic lights still running of phone lines then the council should already have a plan to deal with it. Battery back up provision is already handled by Ofcom.
There are more reasons that a home user’s power might be off that wouldn’t affect traffic lights (prepayment meters being a big one…)
The Local Government Association, which represents councils across England and Wales, has not planned or budgeted for traffic lights, cash machines and vital telecare equipment used by almost 2 million vulnerable people may “cease to operate” when analogue copper phone services are withdrawn in 2025 – unless more support is provided.
fixed the spelling mistake, “has warned that” is incorrect, “has not planned or budgeted for” is sadly correct.
Careline customers will not be turned off – or so the BT briefings tell us
But if they ever are there is a product to provide UPS which is being considered as the number of people who would qualify is currently low so the cost would be less than keeping cabs going for maybe 5 lines.
Councils should be worried about how to make the bin collections more effective, not raising taxes for stuff like this nor putting petty arbitrary red tape on people like Jeremy Clarkson who is unable to build a farm track in his own farm where he owns the land because of petty tyrants
Weirdly enough, Pablo, councils are capable of doing both simultaneously. A number are also barely able to afford their statutory obligations, so I’ve no idea why you’re banging on about Clarkson and that one specific council where the department in question are absolutely nothing to do with the department that would be concerned with bins.
You guys, you and John/Phil, really do have no idea what you’re talking about when talking about basically anything, do you?
On this matter go read some local authority budget statements, they have to publish them. On matters generally stop believing what you see on Infowars and social media bubbles and try soaking up many different sources. You may be able to involve more facts in your comments this way.
Yours, a guy married to a local authority employee who is abundantly aware of their budgetary issues because I live in the real world and have second hand experience, not the nonsense I want to read, because I agree with it, on the Internet.
That’s rich coming from a guy who got bullied so hard in school that he believes he is superior to everyone because actual quote “I pay more taxes than all of you” and just constantly spams this comment section with nonsense on literally every article attacking everyone
Love you too, Wilson.
You want to white knight the anti-woke / conspiracy theorist weirdos that’s entirely your call.
The tax thing seems to have really stuck with you, though. Sure it’s me with the problems?
Bytes cries in every single post, attacks people and is wrong all the time. Is so far deep in propaganda that everyone else is a conspiracist
Nothing said was a conspiracy. Councils just waste money and act like petty authoritarians. They are doing things they have no business in such as this for more bureaucracy and stealing more money from people to do it
With how much local authorities have had their finding cut over the past decade and a half it doesn’t surprise me that they are struggling with the transition.
Telecare devices are easily solved by off the shelf mobile connected tech in most instances (e.g. Doro make a unit), and should be part of replacing older equipment which may be EOL anyway (although still working). Some councils contract this out, and service users often pay quite a large monthly payment for “monitoring” with thee equipment rented.
45 minute visit to some homes, self survive for others.
Traffic lights etc. is more troubling, and could derail 2025 (last devices standing), unless/until there are drop in retrofits to existing traffic controls
If I told someone I reported to that ten years notice was not long enough to upgrade my fleet of traffic lights I would expect to be out of work.
The mass migration to VOIP in the UK is, if some avoidance action isn’t taken soon, likely to be a fairly major car crash from a resilience perspective. There are a lot of people with their fingers in the pie, but there doesn’t seem to be much positive action.
Here’s what I think needs to happen;
National and local government government has a key role to play in raising awareness and helping people to make the necessary changes. The Contingencies Act places a duty on government to improve resilience, and this change is very definitely a resilience issue.
OFCOM need to be much more proactive about setting technical standards for things like battery back up systems, voice re-injection into in-home wiring etc. A scheme like the “digital tick” certification used for the migration from analogue to digital TV would give consumers the confidence that things will work as expected. It is not sufficient to provide a mains only powered router with a phone port and/or a DECT base station and leave the rest to the consumer. Providers will need to offer technical assistance, with technician visits if necessary.
ISPs should be expected to ensure that their support systems are ready with tested and robust migration processes in place. For many ISPs who are used to outsourcing the voice side of their offerings to Openreach this is going to be a big change. Again, an accreditation scheme would help.
All of this should have started a long time ago now! I’m not sure it has….
The main responsibility is with BT/Openreach with OFCOM regulating the change over
I would agree with this, OR and providers need to be much more involved.
As you say they seem to assume everyone either only has one phone or will just use a new DECT phone when this obviously is not true.
People will need help wiring in their router to their existing home phone wiring, it’s not difficult but we cannot assume everyone has the know how or confidence to do so.
I know OR don’t get involved in home wiring but this seems like a special case, needs to be far more assistance offered beyond just posting a router to people and expecting them to work it out.
Battery backup needs to be seriously looked at again too, possibly only some sort of limited emergency provision.
So, councils want government funding for the closure of PSTN, but are the same ones which have ample funds to invest in the Qatar National Bank.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/nov/12/uk-local-councils-deposit-taxpayer-cash-qatar-bank-lgbt-rights
Not saying you’re wrong, if anything this proves councils are overfunded, but leave it to the woke guardian to put lgtv as much as possible even on their urls
So: do you ‘invest’ in your bank, Roger, or place money in a savings account or whatever there in expectation of their paying interest?
This is quite the opposite from showing local authorities are awash with cash: they’re desperate to find any way possible to raise it so are looking for returns from what reserves they have.
My own authority has had to close most of the major historical council building as they can’t afford to heat it, having lost huge amounts of funding and not given the tools to replace it. Outside of London we aren’t even given properly funded bus routes let alone 11 figures for mass transit. A neighbouring authority is the largest city in Europe without mass transit and the government doesn’t give a toss as it’s not London. Also not getting HS2 either. That huge underground route in London alongside other tunnels to avoid upsetting people who vote the correct way doesn’t pay for itself you know.
Phil/John/Whatever:
Seek help. Your obsession with ‘woke’ is clearly causing you some issues. Why not talk with a doctor, rejoin the real world, then come back if so inclined?
Come people are getting concerned about the shut down of the Terrestrial TV network in 2034.
By then over 90% of the UK should have FTTP for the few that cannot my understanding is Freesat will still be available
All that will be needed will be a satellite dish and Free view box
There could be a very few instances where FTTP is not available and Satellite dishes are not permitted. A solution would need to be found for those
Sky are moving away from satellite dishes and just providing there service over broadband services fibre or copper
OpenReach were clear about this some years ago.
Councils have had plenty of time to prepare and they should also help educate users,
In addition to OpenReach and ISPs educating consumers. but I’ve not seen any ISP talk about this.
If these problems come to pass, then those abominable digital vehicle speedtraps that connect to the police station through ADSL will die too, so there’s an upside to this. 😉
This is PSTN switch off, not copper switch off. ADSL broadband will continue beyond 2025. Copper switch off will come later, though we are starting to see it in some pilot sites now where new copper services cannot be ordered.
Stop building multiple fibre networks down the same
streets and start using the governments money they have taken from the tax payer and help fund the switch off
Those networks are being built by private money, they are nothing to do with the government. Going by the state of your English I doubt you have to worry about money the government has taken from you.
100% agree £28 million spent funding Alt-nets in tax subsidies. Overbuilding is a huge issue
Why is the council funding cash machines isn’t that the banks problem?
Some banks are probably using this as an excuse to remove ATM in rural areas. Just like they have been closing branches.
ISPs & Telcos are issuing Hubs and Router to customers to enable them the keep their analogue telephone equipment working.
Moving to a proper VOIP provider and out of a major telco / ISP bundle has been a such a huge cost saving. The money saved on line rental will easily buy ATA where needed.
I used to work for a local authority council
The amount of sticking your head in the sand attitude and ignoring the issue that went on was unbelievable
Two years were wasted by some services as they were in denial of the 2025 switch off while others like or carephones team moved to a mobile solution that now has carbon monoxide sensors and other options.
Think you’ll find a lot of the local government association that are complaining will have been in denial over the 2025 and have been busy ignoring the issue until the last minute as usual.
Fair. Never said anything about their competence, just bit at idiots claiming they’re awash with money. If you’re in London or parts of the south it might be business as usual, very much not the case in others.
Manchester had to win a Commonwealth Games bid to get a few hundred million to extend its tram system.
I bet the majority of the UK population don’t know this switchover is coming and that they may need to change/modify their burglar alarm. Where are the government TV ads?
Just for giggles I searched on Amazon UK for “Analogue Terminal Adapter” and found none although Google shopping can find them.
If it’s not on Amazon you can be pretty sure the public don’t know this is coming.
They are listed as VOIP adaptors on Amazon.
ATA = Analogue Telephone Adaptor.
Amazon UK have Cisco and Grandstream products.
Other EU countries switched off copper circuits in favour of digital fibre connectivity over 20 years ago and it is shameful the UK has lagged so far behind. It is about time we do the same. To keep analogue devices, they need to be connected to an ATA (Analogue Telephony Adaptor) which is not cheap, but maybe necessary for devices such as existing lift phones. However, newer IP devices have been around for many years which include IP Telephony handsets operating from cloud-based Internet platforms as well as soft-clients on laptops, mobile phones, tablets and even watches. Everything is going digital, so let’s just get on with it.
Indeed. I noted DT supplied POTS as a port on a VDSL router some 7 years ago. So I’m sure none of these issues lack a technical resolution.
Just funding and other resources.