Key facts
- BT has been accused of "bullying" customers by pausing broadband to encourage digital landline upgrades.
- Around 1.3 million copper-based landlines still need to be migrated before the end-of-January deadline.
- BT temporarily paused broadband for a small group of unresponsive customers, giving them five days' notice.
- Landline and mobile services remained operational during the broadband pause.
- Over 80% of customers affected by the pause subsequently switched their landlines.
- Virgin Media was fined £23.8 million for customer service failures during a similar transition.
BT has faced accusations of "bullying" customers by temporarily halting broadband services to compel them to upgrade to digital landlines ahead of a looming January deadline. This move comes as telecoms providers race to migrate millions of lines from the old copper network to digital voice over internet protocol (VoIP).
Openreach, BT's network subsidiary, reports that approximately 1.3 million copper-based landlines are yet to be migrated. To meet the end-of-January deadline, companies are increasing pressure on customers who have not responded to years of communications and awareness campaigns.
Dennis Reed, founder of the campaign group Silver Voices, stated he has seen "increasing evidence that there is some bullying behaviour going on in order to try to force people to switch over." He noted instances where customers with BT broadband contracts who were not proactive about switching their landlines were threatened with internet disconnection. Reed expressed concern that targets might lead to people falling through the cracks.
It is understood that BT recently implemented a "temporary pause" on broadband for a small number of customers who had not responded to communications about the copper landline switchover for two years. These customers were given five days' notice of the outage to prompt them to contact BT and take action. Landline and mobile services remained operational during these pauses, ensuring services like telecare devices continued to function.
More than 80% of these previously unresponsive customers subsequently took the necessary steps to switch. A BT spokesperson said the temporary pause was intended to help prevent a complete loss of service when the old analogue network is retired, emphasizing the critical need for customers to act when contacted.
Campaigners are concerned that the remaining 1.3 million households on copper lines include vulnerable individuals, such as the elderly who may only have a landline and no internet, and those in rural areas with unreliable broadband or mobile coverage. These individuals worry about their ability to contact emergency services during power outages.
Around 2 million users of telecare services, often personal pendant alarms, traditionally rely on copper landlines and are unaffected if the internet goes down. In December, Virgin Media was fined £23.8 million for leaving thousands of customers, typically older and disabled individuals, without access to their alarms during a transition.
The issue of vulnerable customers previously led to a pause in non-voluntary migrations and ultimately pushed the copper landline retirement date from December to the end of January.
For most customers, the switch involves simply plugging their existing home phone handset into their broadband router. Caroline Abrahams, charity director at Age UK, urged telecoms providers to ensure no older person is cut off if they have not yet switched, stating the deadline should not be a "hard-and-fast cliff edge."