Landlines - National Switch from Analogue to IP

[WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll]

Does anybody know much about the plans for switching off the old PSTN/POTS/analogue telephone line system? There's info out there, but it doesn't seem to be very detailed, as far as I can see - mainly just telling you what will happen and not when or how.

Like many households, we have a fixed landline for our home broadband; but unlike many, we still use it for (occasionally) making actual calls and for receiving them from (mainly older) family members.

We have no great issue with ditching the analogue facility and switching to VoIP as standard, but we have family members who have heard just enough about it to worry about 'losing their phone line' but, as I say, not a load of useful information to reassure them.

I presume the idea is that every household that wants to still have a fixed phone line will by default end up with broadband. Ironically, it will probably be a lot of younger people, who have unlimited mobile broadband on their phones or tablets and thus don't bother with fixed home BB, who won't be affected by this.

It looks like they're planning to keep offering 'local' numbers associated with your own dialling code area - albeit 'spoofed' and no longer with any relevance to the service or connection other than to minimise unnecessary visible change and reassure people.

How will they charge for it? Will you be basically just sold a voice-only BB line (if that's all you want) for one fixed monthly fee, regardless of how many local/national/international calls you make - or will they preserve the illusion of calls that are 'more expensive' to provide - with associated pricing - to rip off the elderly?

I'm not really bothered about the change myself - it's a bit of a faff, but should then save us money overall. I just feel like they've thrown a worry bomb at many of the elderly who have no interest in (or real understanding of) the internet and may just panic about it all, when the time comes - I'm thinking of those who hear the word 'internet' and instantly associate it with complexity, scams and/or security and privacy issues.

Will it be seamless and present on the surface as no different to resolute non-internet users? I'm assuming that, once a house is newly online, telecom and other companies (and maybe also scammers) won't miss a trick in targeting people for constant upselling. It can be difficult enough now for those who want a phone line only and no internet or TV services active on it.

I'm also guessing that the government will, before long, 'lose patience' and remove the option of telephone helplines for non-internet-users to access central services - as they will no longer have the valid 'excuse' that they aren't online. A bit like the banks did with cheque books, when they told you that, if you had a cheque guarantee card, you also had a debit card and so no longer needed the facility to write cheques. In fact, this will give them the perfect excuse to complete their branch-free dream and force everybody to bank online, once everybody (technically) IS online.

I know the change makes sense and will be better longer term, but I do wonder if the full impact on many of the less-tech-savvy elderly has been properly assessed. We have family members who are already worried about it. I think one particular worry will be that, if you have a power cut and no mobile phone, you will lose the ability to call anybody - or, presumably, to use a lifeline help service. They've said that battery back-ups will be available for this scenario, but considering how many older folk who have got themselves/been given a mobile don't really see the need to get the habit of keeping it charged and leave it in a drawer, I wonder how successful this will be overall.

Before anybody says, I realise that a great many older people are regular tech users and as comfortable with it as anybody else (if not more so; and, indeed, some younger people are not) - but these obviously aren't the people I'm thinking of here.

Does anybody have any thoughts on this - or any more practical info, insider knowledge of timescales etc.?

Power cuts being rare?

I've just sat through one and only managed to find the number to call and report it because it was stored on the landline.

They'd better make sure more rural areas have good enough free WiFi cover for when our routers do down!

@gogohm

I've not heard of this! I work for the church and have dozens of elderly members many relying on emergency care lines, very few have broadband or mobile phones.

At home we don't have a landline but our broadband is of course through the landline.

You mean the button you press if you need help? I am hoping they will keep them for that. Also for the emergency button if you got stuck in a lift etc. Who wants to rely on broadband for those things?

I suppose it will end up being done by GPS tracker type tech?

Our broadband is through the landline too.

Hate all this tech "development".

I'm semi rural. My broadband is down a phone line. There's no gas supply, everything is electric. No cable broadband. The last time I had a powercut all the mobile signals from every network went down as well.

I'm chronically ill with an elderly mother also with health problems. So they'd better think up a back-up incase it all goes down at once.

How are people supposed to get emergency help if everything goes down for hours/days.

Also what happens if you've just moved or switching isp's and have no Internet for 2wks and no mobile.

I've had a similar conversation with DH recently, when I saw an art piece on a building that read "The wires have gone into the air now".
I was musing that one day in the not too distant future telegraph poles will be a thing of the past.
One of the things we discussed were the emergency buttons for the elderly and rural broadband. Obviously there is now satellite broadband but it's ridiculously expensive. I assume we are headed to a future where every home will need to be connected and thats a shame.

@DaisyNGO

I'm really hoping they will delay it and it's one of their ambitious targets that they don't really expect to hit.

I agree, highly likely to be kicked down the road for a few years. Just look at digital radio - we're now many years past the year given for them turning off the analogue signal, yet, here was are, with analogue radio still with us and going strong!

@Caffeinefirst

I wouldn’t like this. I have virtually no network signal on my mobile in our house. If broadband goes down for any reason we won’t be able to use our mobiles. We have them set to Wi-Fi calling which is fine when the broadband is working. I’d still like to have the option of a landline for when broadband is down.

Yep, fair point. I'm in the same position with no mobile signal at home. In an emergency, with no landline/broadband phone, I'd have to walk a couple of hundred yards up the hill to where I can get a signal. Not much use if I have a fall or otherwise become immobile for any reason.

You mean the button you press if you need help? I am hoping they will keep them for that. Also for the emergency button if you got stuck in a lift etc. Who wants to rely on broadband for those things?

Once the infrastructure is gone, it will be gone - there won't be any way of just keeping fragments of it, as they wouldn't be connected to anything!

I suppose that, with the plans for just about everything to be connected to the 'internet of things' - even your toaster and kettle - then I suppose something as major and critical as a lift would be one of the first in the line.

They're probably counting on 5G for things like that, along with all the smart meters they want us to have, which is fine as part of a facility controlled by a dedicated tech-team, as the lift company would obviously have; but that still doesn't help individual people in their own homes.

The 'date' they've given for it all to be switched over is 2025 - I don't know whether they have that as a definitely-come-what-may, a knowingly over-ambitious target or somewhere in between.

I'm sure 'they' are planning for everything to be connected either by fixed wire or 5G - and thus everything will be covered one way or another - but that still requires people to be on board with it.

But will the infrastructure be gone, is what I'm wondering.

That might be the current plan but many IT projects have failed in the past. So the analogue radio example given by a pp....does that relate maybe?

There may be a corporation game in keeping some infrastructure.
See what I did there? 😂

But will the infrastructure be gone, is what I'm wondering.

I don't know if they'll rip it out - I suppose the telegraph poles could be the first thing they get rid of - but mothballing and not maintaining a complex infrastructure pretty soon has the same effect as removing it anyway.

Not sure how much of the infrastructure they'd keep the telegraph poles might still be there carrying fibre rather than copper.

Our phones were changed to Internet once we got fibre.

Once you switch to fibre from the street, the drop line from the pole will not be powered, so you have to switch to a VoIP phone.