BT Rolling Out UK Digital Voice Service into Northern Ireland

Broadband ISP BT has today continued the region-by-region deployment of their Internet Protocol (IP) based home phone service, Digital Voice, by announcing that they’re about to start the roll-out in Northern Ireland, which will be followed this autumn by customers in the North West and across London.

The Digital Voice product was designed to replace BT’s old analogue phone service, which will cease to function once the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) is completely withdrawn by December 2025. After that point, all future phone services – whether delivered via copper (ADSL, FTTC, G.fast) or Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) lines – will become IP (internet) based and require broadband to function.

The latest update reminds that they recently started (or rather re-started – after a long pause) their Digital Voice deployment in the East Midlands during July (here), before moving to Yorkshire and the Humber in August (here). BT states that they’ve “made a strong start” and “around two million customers nationally” have now switched to the service, although this is exactly the same figure as they gave all the way back in June 2023.

The move into a regional roll-out phase followed complaints from customers, particularly vulnerable users, who discovered some of the caveats of modern IP based systems. For example, without battery backup, the service won’t work during power outages and some kit, such as older home alarms and remote medical monitoring alarms, may cease to function.

As before, customers in N.Ireland can expect to be contacted at least 4 weeks before being upgraded, to help ensure they’re ready for the switch. The regional approach is being supported by general awareness communications and advertising campaigns, delivered across local and regional media to help explain the steps required to make the move to Digital Voice. Users will generally plug their handset into the broadband router or an ATA [analogue] adapter instead of a wall socket (more details). BT will also be present on high streets and at local town hall drop-ins to help explain the change.

The operator is also conducting a trial that will rollout Digital Voice to a limited number of existing broadband customers who are over 70. But BT won’t be proactively switching anyone who falls under the below criteria, where it has this information available:

• Customers with a healthcare pendant
• Customers who are over 70
• Customers who only use landlines
• Customers with no mobile signal
• Customers who have disclosed any additional needs

The ISP noted how their trials have shown that 98% of customers between 70 and 74 chose to switch and only 2% chose to defer.

Lucy Baker MBE, BT Consumer’s All-IP Director, said:

“The customers we reached out to were between 70 and 74, already had broadband, the latest hub, didn’t use their landline for calls that often and didn’t have any additional needs. Customers who could make the switch easily without being sent any additional equipment.

Our early experience in our trials has shown that 98% of customers between 70 and 74 chose to switch and only 2% chose to defer.

As we have seen through the trial, once customers understand what Digital Voice is and what it means for them, they are happy to go ahead. We’ve even seen high levels of satisfaction from customers and very low levels of complaints. These trials will continue to allow us to understand how best to move customers in this group.”

BT’s Other Digital Voice Improvements

➤ Hybrid phones that can switch to a mobile network and have a built-in battery.

➤ Customers can now nominate a family member, friend or carer who will receive all the information about switching on their behalf.

➤ Existing customers with additional needs such as health pendants, or those without mobile coverage at home, will be able to take advantage of free additional support. These options range from free battery back-up units to engineer supported installations or hybrid landline phones.

➤ BT are also continuing to invest in the Shared Rural Network, improving 4G mobile coverage in more than 900 areas across the UK by the end of 2023.

➤ And they’re continuing to work with healthcare pendant and burglar alarm providers to ensure the most vulnerable customers continue to get the service they need.