Fury as pensioners forced to switch from traditional phone landlines to digital network
Campaign group warns of the impact of the change on older and vulnerable people.
More than 70,000 people have signed a petition against the forced switch from traditional landlines.
The change from analogue to digital is being carried out by UK phone and broadband companies working with the Government and communications regulator Ofcom.
They argue the current network needs to be replaced because it is increasingly unreliable and becoming difficult to maintain.
But critics fear the impact on older and vulnerable people as digital landlines do not work during power cuts.
A petition launched by the Silver Voices campaign group has racked up more than 74,000 names.
Director Dennis Reed said: “The superb support for our petition underlines how worried older people are about the potential loss of their landlines and the scepticism there is about their safety needs being taken into account.
"We are getting stories of pensioners returning home from holiday or hospital to find that their landline has been cut off in their absence and there is a router by the back door which they have to set up.
"Older people who do not respond quickly when they are told that their landline is going to be changed, either because they don't understand the technology or because they are away, face not being able to make an emergency call when they need to."
The group is calling on people who have signed the petition to contact their local MPs to lobby them.
Non-voluntary transfers from analogue to digital landlines were paused last summer.
But it was announced in November that they would resume "focusing on customer groups who are least likely to come to harm".
Communications providers are expected to complete the change for most people by January 2027.
A spokesperson for the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology said: “Migrating unreliable land lines to a digital system is vital, because this ageing network is increasingly unsafe and putting vulnerable people at risk.
"While this change is industry-led, we are doing whatever it takes to make this transition as safe as possible, and we have recently demanded that communications providers agree to a strict checklist before migrating telecare users.
“Silver Voices do important work advocating for older people and we have met with them several times over the past year and continue to engage with them."
