The UK Landline Switch Off - What You Need To Know

[Postal]

Simon, regarding a facebook account   .....  I don't have one, mainly coz I don't want to display my name on t'internet - however, a bit like yourself, I would occasionally like to be able to contact organizations or companies for whatever reason (i suppose mainly to complain about something when all else has failed).

Just a shame that the lack of awareness of most Facebook users means that they have given the Son of Satan the right to access pretty much everything on their computer so if your name is in their address book the data may well have been passed on - and did they ask for your permission to pass on your data?

[nowster]

If someone can come up with the spec of a UPS that will keep a broadband line running for 12 hours then that would be a far more useful avenue to explore (IMVHO)

The small UPS my parents have will power the ONT, the router (a Raspberry Pi4) and a low power travel access point (gl-inet GL-SFT1200 "Opal" in access point mode) for about 2½ hours. You do have to reconfigure it so as not to power itself off after 10 minutes in "low load" state.

If I wanted something more long lasting, a large 12V caravan battery and some voltage regulators (12V for the ONT and 5V for the others) would probably be a good idea.

[Postal]

The trouble is that a lot of the areas which are likely to face the long power outages are also areas which have a demographic biased towards people who no longer work while a lot of those who do work are in the sort of jobs that these days are zero-hours minimum wage contracts.  Having over £100 to lash out on a way to maintain a service they have always had as part of their normal day-to-day outgoings is not an option for many.

[john7]

The trouble is that a lot of the areas which are likely to face the long power outages are also areas which have a demographic biased towards people who no longer work while a lot of those who do work are in the sort of jobs that these days are zero-hours minimum wage contracts.  Having over £100 to lash out on a way to maintain a service they have always had as part of their normal day-to-day outgoings is not an option for many.

I agree, its interesting how much faster fibre is being rolled out than the original broadband, its so much more profitable. All the skills that can be got rid of, the need to provide power to make the system work (safely) and as usual the people paying for this will be the poor and in rural areas.  I know parts of Welsh towns that lack reliable mobile phone reception and we are over the border in Oswestry and I rely of Wi-Fi to use my mobile at home! But that with the new fibre system will be up to me to find a way round, growth in carrier pigeons? Good for the senior managers and shareholders poor for many other though including the many existing staff who will lose their jobs and get cuts in pay and conditions

[stan]

We're slightly straying off course here but I've just moved from O2 to a SIM only Pay Monthly contract with Sky Mobile.  I'm paying them £7 per month for unlimited calls and texts, plus 3GB data, the same as I was paying O2 nearly £16 per month for.  The reason I switched was O2's appalling customer service.  I realise that I am still technically on O2, as Sky piggyback on their network, but at least I'm only paying half the price I was paying before.

With regards Facebook, Stan, there are lots of privacy settings where you can lock your profile down so that only people that you want to see you can see you.  That said, I'm sure people don't always use their full real names.  I don't have any personal details in my profile, and as far as I can recall, the only validation they require on registration is an email address, but it's been a while since I joined, so that may have changed.

I'm not surprised you had a poor experience with o2, Simon, as, according to Trustpilot, only 13% award them top marks.  But, as mentioned, my main reason for taking the new SIM contract was, apart from it being easy to simply swap as I was already with them, the presence of a local o2 shop with real people in it offers some reassurance to me regarding both the phone and the account in the event of a problem.  And the price was fair at £6 a month fro the calls, texts and respectable data allowance (in actual fact they weren't advertising that deal but I spotted it on Moneysaving expert and they honoured it without any quibbling).

Regarding Facebook, I'll think I'll chicken out for the time being.

[Postal]

Having a shop and real people is no guarantee of satisfactory service.  Last December we went to our nearest Three shop after they told us they had a phone in stock that my wife fancied.  When we got there it was out of stock but they said they would order it in on their online system although we would have to pay upfront.  We duly did so but before delivery cancelled the order as they said they would be too busy to transfer the data over from her existing phone.

All of our efforts with Three to have our £429 returned were fruitless and we eventually put in claims through the credit card chargeback system and also through the Financial Ombudsman as it was a credit transaction.  Both found in our favour but it took from the 14th. Dec. 2021 to 13th. Apr. 2022 to get our money back (along with all the stress as well as the time taken in trying to get things resolved).  Unfortunately we had only just renewed our contracts with Three but we are now at the end of those SIM-only contracts and can go somewhere with a bit more respect for their customers in the next couple of weeks.

[Simon]

I've only been with them for a few weeks, but I've so far found no reason not to recommend Sky Mobile.  They do some good SIM only and 'with a phone' deals, and they did at least answer the phone within a couple of minutes when I had a query relating to my order.  I received the SIM within three days, which would have been sooner, but for the current disruptions to the postal service.  A further 12 hours later, my number had been transferred and I was up and running. 

[Simon]

I'm not surprised you had a poor experience with o2, Simon, as, according to Trustpilot, only 13% award them top marks.  But, as mentioned, my main reason for taking the new SIM contract was, apart from it being easy to simply swap as I was already with them, the presence of a local o2 shop with real people in it offers some reassurance to me regarding both the phone and the account in the event of a problem.  And the price was fair at £6 a month fro the calls, texts and respectable data allowance (in actual fact they weren't advertising that deal but I spotted it on Moneysaving expert and they honoured it without any quibbling).

Glad to hear you got a good deal, Stan.  Incidentally, mine was one of the negative reviews for O2 on Trustpilot.  After I terminated the service, they actually ended up owing me a little bit of money, which it took a further effort to claim back. I ended up leaving messages (PMs) on their Facebook and Twitter pages, and it still took them three days to respond.

[robinc]

Going back to the original topic, the other unknowable is timing. For example, in our area OR were going round axing landlines left right and centre. Then came the pause in rollout, during which time we are told they will be looking at the issues raised vis-a-vis power cuts and backup power supplies which were mentioned but never arrived.

So we have a dwindling timescale during which - at any time it seems - the dreaded vans will appear and lines be chopped off. Naturally we will all receive an exact pro-rata refund for the unusable line rental.

I have no need of a VOIP phone, our mobiles do Wifi Calling quite happily (can be a bit 'warbly' but usually fine). I have no desire to fork out £12.50 a month (£150 a year) to replace the £130 ish I pay for a landline that gets used for outbound calls about 8 times a year. Sadly due to EE and their inability to fix a local mast issue I have to renew it this year to be on the safe side.

[Gary]

Im happy with EE they cocked up my sim only avvount and gave me unlimited data (at full speed over 3G/4G 5G) and unlimited calls and texts and 4 bundles  with a £5 offodd as they mucked me around when they lost my tariff after changing it without asking me when on a call. I can swap around each month with four bundles using my phone abroad with its data, Apple Music, Prime or BritBox (never use that). All for £20 a month which suits me fine. Speeds are very good and now its not in contract its a 30 day rolling plan, so I'm happy with that. Where I live we have masts at the toop of the village for all the usual suspects so great coverage, good deals if you look around on O2 but thoer network speeds can be slow and three seem to be updating thoer 4G network in this area but no 5G, and my iPhone 14 Pro uses 5G happily here. My careline uses my router via Ethernet or 4G via a roaming sim card built in so going SOGEA was painless pretty much, and no spam calls its lovely. I don't miss my landline at all tbh. Also we have Giganet putting in FTTP now so I could leave IDNet and go full 900Mbps Symmetrical for £40 or a more sensible 500Mbps symmetrical for £36 including VAT.

The Only issue is they don't have any SMTP servers and I don't want to keep logging into my domain mail, or pass it though Gmail as google reads everything in Gmail pretty much and Im not running a mail server with the price of electricity the way it is. So even though full fibre is 6ft away I wont be leaving IDNet just yet, hopefully as the neighbours hop on to giganet who's contractors went though three gas lines and loads of openreach armoured cables and then tried to patch them up themselves (I had to call Openreach to come out and fix that as the lying contractor had said they had been out and said what a great job he had done) his face was a picture when they turned up and had to splice and gel crimp new cables in to fix it two hours later)  Our very pretty close now looks like a bombs hit it sadly as they destroyed the pavements grass areas too. 

[nowster]

You don't necessarily have to pay anything to keep your landline phone number. I have two VoIP numbers with SIPGate which cost me nothing. I just have to keep them alive by making a call to them every now and then. One's idle, but has the Pat Simmons speaking clock on it.

[Postal]

You don't necessarily have to pay anything to keep your landline phone number. I have two VoIP numbers with SIPGate which cost me nothing. I just have to keep them alive by making a call to them every now and then. One's idle, but has the Pat Simmons speaking clock on it.

Unfortunately Sipgate have recently announced that they are re-configuring their "Basic" offering and it will become a chargeable service - not sure whether that applies to existing customers.

[Postal]

Reviving an old topic, BT customers on our exchange (Embleton, NEEN) have received letters informing them that the PSTN service will be ceased within the next 30 days.  I contacted Support at IDNet to ask if that would also apply to IDNet customers, particularly those like ourselves who are old enough to be considered as vulnerable and who live in an area without mobile reception.  I have just received a very worrying reply that IDNet do not intend to make any arrangements for vulnerable customers and it is up to the customer to make their own arrangements for power back up.  This is in direct contravention of the OfCOM instructions (as in the letter available at https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0030/264846/open-letter-999-programme.pdf).

I have asked IDNet for their comments and will get back once I hear.

[Postal]

Reviving an old topic, BT customers on our exchange (Embleton, NEEN) have received letters informing them that the PSTN service will be ceased within the next 30 days.  I contacted Support at IDNet to ask if that would also apply to IDNet customers, particularly those like ourselves who are old enough to be considered as vulnerable and who live in an area without mobile reception.  I have just received a very worrying reply that IDNet do not intend to make any arrangements for vulnerable customers and it is up to the customer to make their own arrangements for power back up.  This is in direct contravention of the OfCOM instructions (as in the letter available at https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0030/264846/open-letter-999-programme.pdf).

I have asked IDNet for their comments and will get back once I hear.

Swift reverse ferret from IDNet!

"We do of course advise customer's that during a powercut their service will not be available so advise having an alternative contact method to hand such as a mobile phone.
If a customer is vulnerable then we will supply a back for an 1hr so calls to emergency services can be made."

[peasblossom]

I know we've been through this before but feel free to nod sagely at this piece in The Guardian. If you don't want to register, use archive.ph to read the article.

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2023/nov/20/as-uk-landlines-go-digital-fears-grow-for-vulnerable-people-whose-home-phone-is-a-lifeline

[zappaDPJ]

It'll be interesting to see what happens when they switch off Canterbury. It's notorious for having no mobile signal on almost any network and the flakiest broadband. In fact it's recently been named as having the slowest broadband in the UK.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/uk-worst-broadband-speed-kent-b2420006.html

A battery backup is not going to be of much help if you've no mobile signal or working broadband connection.

[nowster]

A battery backup on your own equipment isn't much help if the battery has been stolen from the OpenReach cabinet (which is what has happened in a few places).

[Simon]

This is a reason South East Water have given for not having a backup generator in my local pumping station - because people nick the fuel. 

[Tacitus]

A battery backup is not going to be of much help if you've no mobile signal or working broadband connection.

Whilst these are still going to need a battery backup of some sort, they may be useful for getting a usable mobile signal in an otherwise poor area.  Not exactly cheap and looking at the spec sheet they are power hungry (40W max) so you would need a decent sized battery backup.

The interesting point though is that the regs for signal boosters are being relaxed so there may be a lot more coming on the market over the next few years.

https://signalboosters.co.uk

[zappaDPJ]

Whilst these are still going to need a battery backup of some sort, they may be useful for getting a usable mobile signal in an otherwise poor area.  Not exactly cheap and looking at the spec sheet they are power hungry (40W max) so you would need a decent sized battery backup.

The interesting point though is that the regs for signal boosters are being relaxed so there may be a lot more coming on the market over the next few years.

https://signalboosters.co.uk

I think there's an issue with planning for masts because it's considered an area of historic significance. I lived there for a while during the 70's and it certainly was an amazing place then but not so much now. A few masts would probably go unnoticed such is the state of it.

[Clive]

I've struck a deal with Ogi - a Welsh super fast broadband provider to have 150Mb for £15 a month for two years.  I can keep my landline providing it's a BT line if I pay an extra £5 a month for evenings and weekends or £10 for 24/7.  SWAMBO says it's imperative to have the latter.  Sad to leave IDNet after all these years but they don't cover our area.   

[camdave]

Parts of our village have fibre, some do not, we are in the have not area. We do have Virgin cable so will we be forced to switch over to Virgin when copper is switched off – I have no wish to subscribe to Virgin as they seem to have a lot of issues.

We do have good mobile signals but that is not really the point as I am referring to 'normal' times, not if there is a power cut.

[Postal]

Parts of our village have fibre, some do not, we are in the have not area. We do have Virgin cable so will we be forced to switch over to Virgin when copper is switched off – I have no wish to subscribe to Virgin as they seem to have a lot of issues.

We do have good mobile signals but that is not really the point as I am referring to 'normal' times, not if there is a power cut.

If the mobile signal is good enough there is always the option of completely ditching any landline or fibre connection and doing everything over the mobile networks.  It is possible to retain your existing landline number going down that route by switching to a standalone VoIP povider before turning off the landline.  There is anecdotal evidence elsewhere on the net of people doing that and being able to do everything previously done overland (including stuff like streaming of video, TV etc) and bringing their total outgoings down by £10 or £15 a month.

Not to be done until you have satisfied yourself that the mobile signal is adequate!

[peasblossom]

Well. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/dec/18/uk-telecoms-firms-told-to-safeguard-at-risk-customers-in-switch-to-digital-landlines

[Simon]

I really can't see the rollout being completed by the end of this coming year.  The work that needs doing to every individual property to switch to FTTP means this is a colossal task, and going by my own experience, is by no means a straightforward one.  My bet is that the government will step in and the 'big switch off' will be postponed until at least 2030.