B4RN Join UK Gov Charter to Protect Vulnerable Home Phone Users

Rural focused alternative UK broadband network B4RN, which is a community benefit ISP that has rolled out a 10Gbps speed full fibre network to 25,000 premises (inc. 13,000+ customers), has joined the government’s charter for protecting vulnerable people from harm during the upgrade to digital (IP / VoIP based) phone lines.

Just to recap. At the end of 2023 the government and several major broadband ISPs launched a new charter (here), which set out the “new measures” they would all agree to adopt in order to protect vulnerable customers when upgrading phone lines from the old analogue (PSTN / WLR) to newer digital phone networks.

The charter essentially commits signatory providers to “concrete measures to protect vulnerable households“, particularly those using personal alarms, known as telecare, which offer remote support to elderly, disabled, and vulnerable people – with many located in rural and isolated areas, where mobile signals may also be poor. This is needed because the older telecare systems aren’t always compatible with digital phone networks (mostly due to the fault of telecare providers).

The old phone networks were originally supposed to be completely switched off by the end of 2025, although vulnerable users were recently given more time as the deadline for migration in related households has since been extended to 31st Jan 2027 (here and here).

Key Charter Commitments

➤ All providers have agreed to not forcibly move customers onto the new network unless they are fully confident they will be protected.

➤ Providers will conduct additional checks on customers who have already been forcibly migrated to ensure they do not have telecare devices the provider was unaware of, and if they do, to ensure suitable support is provided.

➤ No telecare users will be migrated to digital landline services without the provider, customer, or telecare company confirming they have a compatible and functioning telecare solution in place.

➤ Providers will be required to work to provide back-up solutions [battery systems] that go beyond regulator Ofcom’s minimum of one hour of continued, uninterrupted access to emergency services in the event of a power outage.

➤ They will collectively work with Ofcom and the UK government to agree a shared definition of ‘vulnerable people’ for this transition, so it is no longer dependent on the company and establishes an industry wide standard.

➤ Government will also continue to work with the telecare sector to reduce risk for users during the digital transition.

At launch the charter was only supported by BT, Virgin Media O2, Sky (Sky Broadband), TalkTalk, Vodafone, Shell Energy and KCOM. But in Feb 2024 they were joined by Zen Internet, then Ogi in May 2024 and now B4RN has become the latest to sign the charter.

We should add that a related charter was also signed and supported by network operators more on the wholesale side of things (here), which launched in March 2024 and included support from Openreach, CityFibre, AllPoints Fibre (Swish Fibre, Giganet, Jurassic Fibre and Cuckoo), CommunityFibre, Ogi, KCOM and WightFibre.