Home safety and personal security system
The digital switch over and how it will affect our lifelines
By December 2025, phone lines across the country will be upgraded from analogue (copper wired) to a digital service. You may have already been aware or have received a letter from your phone provider to inform you that they will be carrying out this work in your area.
If your telephone provider sends an engineer to carry out work in your home, please inform them that you have a Lifeline. Once they have installed your digital hub, ask them to connect the Lifeline and landline telephone into the hub and make a test call to us.
Where the test call is successfully answered by our Control Centre, you do not need to take any further action.
If your call is not answered by our Control Centre, please ask the phone engineer to check the connections. If they are unable to resolve the issue, please contact us on our 24-hour phone line by calling 01455 251137 and we will make an appointment for a member of our team to attend and check your Lifeline as soon as possible.
Please be aware that if there is a power cut once you have had your digital hub installed, you will not be able to use your phone or Lifeline until the power is restored.
Some phone providers are providing an emergency backup system that will provide you with at least one hour of backup.
We suggest that you ask your phone provider if they can provide and install this for you when they upgrade your system to the new digital service.
Some of our existing customers and any new customers will have a digital Lifeline installed and you will not be affected by the switchover to the new digital service.
Please stay safe: if you are contacted by your phone provider or the council to carry upgrades to your phone line or lifeline, they should make a prior appointment and not turn up unannounced. Before letting them into your property, ask for identification and. If in doubt, don’t let them in and contact your phone provider, the council's control centre on 01455 251137, or press your pendant alarm.
Further information
Please visit the following websites for general information about the switchover:
- Changes to landline telephones (ageuk.org.uk)
- Upgrading the UK to digital phone lines (openreach.com)
- Upgrading landlines to digital technology – what you need to know (ofcom.org.uk)
Last updated: 14/03/2024 13:48
