Should have read the article 
It was around then that local authorities stopped providing "careline" (or in our case, "Telecare") packages out of their social care budget. Customers either had to fund the service themselves (£26/year sounds about right) or go without.
Our decision was made for us, as we don't have a landline and no UK provider can accept a mobile unit (but they'll supply one 
).
The care package covers the dialler and - more importantly - the pendant and fall-detector.
In the worst instance, the call centre can call the police/ambulance if there's no response to a callback after an alarm is triggered.
All of that said, the future will be your smart home devices all meshed up to detect if someone is moving around (or not) and calling help (maybe a warden) if necessary.
(I say future, there's a village in Italy that's trialling it now.)