Posted: 18th Feb, 2010 By: MarkJ

Older people who live alone are to be offered a friendly weekly phone call from phone and broadband provider TalkTalk UK. The free service,'
We’ll Call You', is designed to provide older people a guaranteed weekly natter. We can only imagine the comical chats they might have if Victor Meldrew (BBC One sitcom - One Foot in the Grave) was one of their customers.
TalkTalk's research suggests that the number of people over 65 who live alone has passed the 4 million milestone. Overall the number of people living alone has reached 8.7 million, meaning that about one in three of all homes are single person households. In 2005 some 29% of homes were single person households. In 1971 it was 20%.
TalkTalk’s Communications Director, Mark Schmid, said:
"We’re not trying to replace social services and charities but our research shows that the service we’re providing meets a need which is not currently being met. With the number of older people living alone passing the four million mark the launch of our service is very timely.
Knowing that there will be a phone call from a friendly, familiar voice at a fixed time each week and that you can talk to them about anything you like is something that a lot of people value.
We install communications equipment in millions of homes and our next generation network carries billions of bits of data every day, but for many people, the most important piece of communications ‘kit’ is a human voice. The We’ll Call You service is designed to ensure everyone has someone to chat to at least once a week."
The calls will be made by TalkTalk staff. It is hoped that each team caller will form a bond with their contacts. At the very least the caller will check that everything is all right. They will not use the call to sell a TalkTalk product or service.
The nature of the calls, which last no more than five minutes, is up to the contact; they can use them to discuss the news, gossip about the week’s TV or just to have a chat about whatever takes their fancy. They can also ask their TalkTalk caller to look up information for them about local services.
It's certainly a very unique and thoughtful service, though we hope there's a "
do not disturb" option for those who would rather not be bothered by it.