Will My Care Alarm Still Work? Broadband and Telecare After the Switch-Off

Most care alarms will come through the landline switch-off fine, because most are already digital or will be swapped before the line moves. The risk sits with the older analogue pendant on a landline that gets switched without anyone checking, and the whole system of protections built since 2023 exists to stop that happening. This guide explains, in plain terms, what those protections are, where the real gaps remain, and what a family can do this month to close them.

Will my care alarm still work after the landline switch-off?

Direct answer: if it is digital, yes. If it is an older analogue alarm that dials out over the phone line, it may not work reliably once the line becomes digital. The government's Telecare National Action Plan states that devices designed to operate on analogue landlines have a higher rate of failure when connected to digital ones, and that there have been serious incidents, including a small number of fatalities, where telecare devices failed to work properly after the switchover.

That sentence from a government policy paper is the reason this page exists. A care alarm is a device, usually a pendant or button, and a monitoring centre staffed by people who answer when it is pressed. The device has to reach the centre. For decades it did that by dialling a number over the analogue landline and sending its alarm as a burst of tones. A digital line carries the call, but the plan is candid that the digital line may corrupt the alarm's signalling, and that reliability depends on the model of alarm, the signalling protocol, the line type, the provider and the centre's equipment. A combination that works in one house may fail in the next.

The fix is not complicated. Digital alarms send a digital signal, usually over their own mobile connection, and do not depend on the landline at all. The industry's own quality standard has meant that no new analogue-only alarms have been manufactured for the English market since November 2022. The problem is the millions of older units still in homes, and the households that do not know which kind they have.

How many people does this affect?

Direct answer: upwards of 2 million people in the UK use telecare, according to the government's plan, and most of their devices have historically relied on the analogue landline. Nobody knows how many are still on analogue equipment, and the plan says so.

Telecare users are, by and large, older or living with a disability, and the plan notes one large supplier alone handles 4 million alarm calls a year. The devices reach people through many routes: commissioned by a council or housing association, provided in sheltered housing, used in a care home, or bought privately from a company advertising in the Sunday papers. That last group matters, and we come back to it, because the plan states there is no data available on how many telecare users purchase services or devices from private suppliers. The system built to protect telecare users can only protect the ones it can see.

What has happened when it went wrong?

Direct answer: people were disconnected, alarms stopped reaching monitoring centres, and on 1 December 2025 Ofcom fined Virgin Media £23.8 million for it.

Ofcom's investigation found serious systemic failures in Virgin Media's migration process between August 2022 and December 2023. Virgin Media failed properly to identify and record the status of telecare customers, leaving significant gaps in its screening. It then disconnected telecare customers who did not engage with the migration process, despite being aware of the risks, which Ofcom said put thousands of vulnerable customers at a direct risk of harm and prevented their devices from connecting to alarm monitoring centres while the disconnection was in place. Virgin Media reported the incidents itself, admitted the failings, and has since introduced further safeguards, including keeping non-engaging telecare users connected. Ofcom's Director of Enforcement said the fine makes clear to companies that if they fail to protect their vulnerable customers they can expect similar action.

It was those incidents in late 2023, and others like them, that produced the charter the major providers signed in December 2023 and everything that has followed. The protections below exist because of what happened to real people, and they are worth knowing precisely.

What must happen before a telecare user's line is moved?

Direct answer: quite a lot, and all of it is written down. Between December 2023 and March 2026, providers and network operators made a set of specific commitments about telecare users under government charters, and the government published its own action plan. Here they are in one place.

One honest note. These are commitments made by providers under voluntary charters, monitored quarterly by the government, and backed by Ofcom's general rules on treating vulnerable customers fairly, which is what Virgin Media was fined under. They are not a statute. They are, however, specific, public and enforced, and a family that knows them can hold a provider to them.

What happens when the engineer comes?

Direct answer: on the Openreach network there is now a dedicated service for exactly this, called Prove Telecare, and it has a fail-safe built in. The engineer moves the phone line and the alarm to the digital service and confirms with the alarm provider that it still works. If it does not, the engineer moves the phone and the alarm back to the original copper service that day.

Openreach launched the service nationally in September 2025 after a pilot in which more than a thousand customers with fixed-line telecare devices were migrated with, in Openreach's words, no disruption to their telecare services. It went fully live in October 2025, supported by more than 4,000 specially trained engineers who work directly with alarm receiving centres to confirm households using telecare and only complete migrations when devices are compatible. Where a device is incompatible, Openreach tells the customer's provider and the telecare provider so a replacement can be installed before a follow-up visit. The principle, as one description of the service puts it, is continuity first and upgrade second.

Good providers add their own checks. The action plan describes Sky asking three questions before any switch: whether you have a healthcare or medical alarm connected to the line, whether you have another way to reach emergency services in a power cut, and whether you have checked with the alarm provider that it will work on the new service. It describes KCOM in Hull arranging an engineer visit for every identified telecare user, testing before and after, contacting the alarm centre, and not leaving the home until service is restored. If your provider asks those questions, answer them fully. If it does not, volunteer the answers.

Will my care alarm work in a power cut?

Direct answer: not necessarily, and this is the gap almost every family misses. Your provider must offer a battery back-up so that you can call 999 in a power cut. The government's plan states that there is no regulatory requirement for providers to ensure uninterrupted access for telecare devices, because telecare devices do not dial 999.

Read that again, because it inverts what most people assume. Ofcom requires providers to have at least one solution that gives a minimum of one hour of access to emergency services in a power outage, free of charge to customers who depend on their landline. Many providers meet that with a battery unit that powers the router. The plan is precise about what that does and does not cover: the primary use case for battery back-up is an emergency call during a power cut, defined as calls to 999, and as telecare devices do not dial 999, there is no obligation to ensure uninterrupted access to telecare calls.

The plan then sets out exactly when an alarm will fail in a power cut: if the alarm has no internal battery, if it has one but it runs out, or if the alarm is connected through a router that has no battery back-up. It also notes what people are losing. Existing analogue alarms typically run for 12 to 24 hours on their own battery in a power failure, because the old landline carried its own power. Many digital alarms have a built-in roaming SIM, so they connect to a mobile mast instead, and some but not all masts have their own back-up power.

So the practical question for a family is not "has the provider sent a battery" but "what does this specific alarm do when the power goes off". Ask the alarm provider. If the answer is that it uses its own mobile connection and its own battery, the router is irrelevant. If the answer is that it plugs into the router, you need the router on battery back-up and you need to know how long the alarm's own battery lasts. Providers have committed under the charter to work towards solutions that go beyond the one hour minimum, and BT and Virgin Media both now offer hybrid devices with a mobile fallback, which our power cut guide sets out.

What if we bought the alarm ourselves?

Direct answer: then nobody in the system knows you have it unless you tell them, and that is the single most important thing on this page for a family in that position.

Providers find telecare users in three main ways: data shared by councils under agreements, checks on which lines have dialled alarm centre numbers, and customers telling them. A privately bought alarm from a company that is not a council contractor may sit outside the first route entirely. The plan is candid that there is no data on how many people buy telecare privately, and Devon County Council's own risk model, reproduced in the plan, puts self-funders in the category the council is not sighted on. If you bought the pendant from an advert or a catalogue, assume the landline provider has no idea it exists.

The remedy takes one phone call. Ring the landline provider, say that someone at the address uses a telecare alarm, and ask them to record it. The government's definition of customers needing a supported migration explicitly includes telecare users and allows customers or their carers to self-identify. Once you are recorded, every safeguard in the ladder above applies to you. The NHS website now carries a warning box saying an analogue telecare alarm may not work properly with a digital landline and to consider a digital alarm if unsure, which is good advice, but the recording is the step that protects you while you sort the replacement.

What should the replacement alarm be?

Direct answer: digital, and not one that depends on 2G or 3G mobile networks, because those are being switched off too. The government's plan specifically warns against replacing an analogue alarm with equipment that relies on them.

This is the trap inside the fix. A digital alarm that connects over the mobile network is the right answer, but some cheaper units use 2G or 3G, and the plan notes that some telecare devices rely on those networks either directly or as a backup. The government's connectivity timeline now gives the dates: EE will retire its 2G network from May 2029, Virgin Media O2 will begin switching off 2G in summer 2029, and VodafoneThree's 2G network switches off in spring 2030. Some alarms also use roaming SIMs that hop between networks, and the plan flagged that Virgin Media O2's withdrawal of roaming on its 2G network from October 2025 could affect them. An alarm bought in 2026 that depends on 2G has a shelf life of about three years.

Two practical pointers. Wandsworth's telecare service tells residents a digital alarm does not need to connect to the router, uses its own secure mobile connection, and needs only a power socket near a window or wherever signal is good, which is a useful test to apply in the house before choosing where it lives. And the plan encourages buyers to look for suppliers certified under the TEC Services Association's Quality Standards Framework, under which no analogue-only devices have been made for the English market since November 2022.

Who arranges and pays for a new alarm?

Direct answer: it depends on who provides the service, and it is worth asking before assuming either way. Where the alarm comes from a council, housing association or sheltered scheme, replacement is generally part of that provider's own programme. Where you bought it yourself, it is yours to arrange.

The plan is honest that councils face financial and resource barriers to replacing everything at once, and it describes Lancashire taking a risk-based approach, prioritising people with dementia, mobility problems, sight or hearing loss, recent use of the responder service or no family contacts, and consciously not replacing every analogue unit immediately. Blackpool, by contrast, funded a full swap and reported 99 per cent of its 3,500 dispersed alarms exchanged. So the answer for a council-provided alarm varies by council, and the question to ask is where you sit in their priority list. If the person you are helping has any of the risk factors Lancashire uses, say so; it may move them up it.

What should families and carers do this month?

Direct answer: make two phone calls, then five small changes in the house. None of it takes long, and together it closes almost every gap this page describes.

What if the alarm stops working after the switch?

Direct answer: ring the alarm provider first, so the monitoring centre knows the alarm is down and can arrange cover, then ring the landline provider the same day. Providers have committed that where a vulnerable customer reports a disconnected line or a non-functioning telecare device after migration, the phone will be restored as a priority.

The checklist also says restoration can include temporarily reinstating the old service where there is no alternative, and network operators are expected to help with priority restoration for a customer who raises a telecare problem within a month of migration. BT's own help page adds an interim step: if the alarm has problems after the move, temporarily connect its base unit to the phone port on the back of the hub and contact the alarm provider immediately. In the meantime, make sure the person has another way to call for help, which may mean a mobile on the bedside table and a family member on speed dial until the visit happens.

Where does this leave you?

Direct answer: in a better position than the headlines suggest, provided the two phone calls get made. The protections are real, specific and enforced. They depend entirely on the provider knowing the alarm exists, and on the family knowing that the battery unit protects the phone rather than the pendant.

If you are choosing a broadband and phone package for a parent for the first time, or their provider has told them they need to move, the digital alarm question and the broadband question are the same conversation. See what is available at their address first, because a digital alarm with its own mobile connection changes what they need from the line.

Frequently asked questions

Will my care alarm still work after the landline switch-off?

If it is a digital alarm, yes. If it is an older analogue alarm that dials out over the phone line, it may not work reliably once the line becomes digital. The government's Telecare National Action Plan states that devices designed for analogue landlines have a higher rate of failure when connected to digital ones, and that there have been serious incidents including a small number of fatalities where alarms failed after a switch.

How do I know if my care alarm is analogue or digital?

Ask whoever provides the alarm service, because they know the model. As a rough guide, an alarm whose base unit plugs into the telephone socket with a phone cable is using the landline. A digital alarm typically uses its own mobile connection and needs only a power socket, ideally near a window or wherever mobile signal is good. If you are not sure, treat it as analogue until told otherwise.

Can my landline be switched off if I use a care alarm?

Not without safeguards. Providers have committed that no telecare user will be migrated without the provider, the customer or the telecare service confirming a compatible working alarm is in place. Under the March 2026 Final Engagement Protocol, a known telecare user gets at least sixty days' notice before any cessation and the alarm provider or council is told at least ten working days before the end of that period.

What happens when the engineer comes to switch a telecare user's line?

On the Openreach network there is a dedicated service called Prove Telecare, fully live since October 2025. The engineer moves the phone line and the alarm to the digital service and confirms with the alarm provider that it still works. If the alarm is found to be incompatible, the engineer moves the phone and the alarm back to the original copper service so protection continues, and a replacement is arranged before a follow-up visit.

Will my care alarm work in a power cut after the switch?

Not necessarily, and this is the gap families miss. The battery back-up your provider must offer exists so you can call 999. The Telecare National Action Plan states there is no regulatory requirement for providers to ensure uninterrupted access for telecare devices, because telecare devices do not dial 999. An alarm connected through the router will stop when the router loses power unless the router has battery back-up and the alarm has its own battery.

What if I bought my care alarm privately?

Then nobody in the system knows you have it unless you tell them. The action plan says there is no data on how many people buy telecare privately, and providers identify telecare users largely through council data and by checking which lines dial alarm centre numbers. Ring your landline provider, say you use a telecare alarm, and ask them to record it on your account.

What kind of replacement alarm should I get?

A digital alarm, and one that does not depend on 2G or 3G mobile networks. The government's plan warns against replacing an analogue alarm with equipment that relies on those networks because they are also being retired, and the connectivity timeline now gives dates: EE from May 2029, Virgin Media O2 from summer 2029 and VodafoneThree in spring 2030. Look for suppliers certified under the TEC Services Association Quality Standards Framework.

Who pays for a new digital care alarm?

It depends who provides the service. Where the alarm comes from a council, housing association or sheltered scheme, the provider is generally replacing analogue units as part of its own programme, and several councils have published schedules. Where you bought the alarm yourself, the replacement is yours to arrange, and the NHS advises considering a digital alarm if you are unsure. Ask the alarm provider before assuming either way.

What should I tell my landline provider?

Three things. That someone at the address uses a telecare alarm. Whether there is a mobile phone that works at home and someone able to use it. And the name and number of a family member or carer who can be contacted about the account. Under the government's checklist and protocol, each of those changes the support you get, including a free engineer visit and longer notice periods.

What should I do if the alarm stops working after the switch?

Ring the alarm provider first so the monitoring centre knows the alarm is down and can arrange cover. Then ring the landline provider the same day. Providers have committed that where a vulnerable customer reports a disconnected line or a non-functioning alarm after migration, the phone will be restored as a priority, and that restoration can include temporarily reinstating the old service.

Has any provider been fined over telecare?

Yes. On 1 December 2025 Ofcom fined Virgin Media £23.8 million after it disconnected telecare customers who did not engage with its migration between August 2022 and December 2023. Ofcom found Virgin Media failed to identify and record telecare customers and that the disconnections put thousands of vulnerable people at direct risk of harm by preventing their alarms reaching monitoring centres.

Does the Telecare National Action Plan apply in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland?

The plan itself applies to England only, and the government says it is working with the devolved administrations to share practice. The industry charters, Ofcom's rules on vulnerable customers and the one hour power cut minimum, and Openreach's Prove Telecare service apply across the UK. If you are outside England, the provider commitments still apply to you; the council-side arrangements may differ.

References

• BT. (n.d.). Digital Voice: Will my service work in a power cut? Retrieved 5 September 2026, from https://www.bt.com/help/landline/digital-voice--will-my-service-work-in-a-power-cut-
• Department for Science, Innovation and Technology. (2025, June 2). Telecare users and their loved ones across the UK urged to speak to telecoms providers ahead of switch to digital landlines. GOV.UK. Retrieved 5 September 2026, from https://www.gov.uk/government/news/telecare-users-and-their-loved-ones-across-the-uk-urged-to-speak-to-telecoms-providers-ahead-of-switch-to-digital-landlines
• Department for Science, Innovation and Technology. (2026, March 24). Communication Providers Final Engagement Protocol. GOV.UK. Retrieved 5 September 2026, from https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/communication-providers-final-engagement-protocol/communication-providers-final-engagement-protocol
• Department for Science, Innovation and Technology. (2026, March 24). Telecoms Modernisation: Non-voluntary migration checklist. GOV.UK. Retrieved 5 September 2026, from https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/telecoms-modernisation-non-voluntary-migration-checklist/telecoms-modernisation-non-voluntary-migration-checklist
• Department for Science, Innovation and Technology. (2026, July 29). Telecommunications Modernisation: Connectivity timeline. GOV.UK. Retrieved 5 September 2026, from https://www.gov.uk/guidance/telecommunications-modernisation-connectivity-timeline
• Department of Health and Social Care, and Department for Science, Innovation and Technology. (2025, February 11). Telecare National Action Plan: Protecting telecare users through the digital phone switchover. GOV.UK. Retrieved 5 September 2026, from https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/telecare-national-action-plan-protecting-telecare-users-throughout-the-digital-phone-switchover/telecare-national-action-plan-protecting-telecare-users-through-the-digital-phone-switchover
• ISPreview. (2025, September 17). Openreach launch new telecare phone migration services across UK. Retrieved 5 September 2026, from https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2025/09/openreach-launch-new-telecare-phone-migration-services-across-uk.html
• Local Government Association. (n.d.). Digital switchover telecare checklist. Retrieved 5 September 2026, from https://www.local.gov.uk/publications/digital-switchover-telecare-checklist
• Ofcom. (2018, October 10). Guidance: Protecting access to emergency organisations when there is a power cut at the customer's premises. Retrieved 5 September 2026, from https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0016/123118/guidance-emergency-access-power-cut.pdf
• Ofcom. (2025, December 1). Ofcom fines Virgin Media £23.8 million for putting vulnerable customers at risk of harm. Retrieved 5 September 2026, from https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-and-broadband/vulnerable-customers/ofcom-fines-virgin-media-23.8-million-for-putting-vulnerable-customers-at-risk-of-harm
• Openreach. (2025, September 17). Openreach clears major hurdle to PSTN switch-off. Retrieved 5 September 2026, from https://www.openreach.com/news/openreach-clears-major-hurdle-to-pstn-switch-off/
• Openreach. (2025, November 12). Openreach announces price changes to encourage digital adoption of newer, more reliable and better value technology. Retrieved 5 September 2026, from https://www.openreach.com/news/openreach-announces-price-changes-to-encourage-digital-adoption-of-newer-more-reliable-and-better-value-technology/
• TEC Services Association. (n.d.). National telecare campaign. Retrieved 5 September 2026, from https://www.tsa-voice.org.uk/digital-shift/about-the-a2d-shift/national-telecare-campaign/
• Virgin Media. (n.d.). Digital Voice: Emergency Backup Line. Retrieved 5 September 2026, from https://www.virginmedia.com/help/landline/emergency-backup
• Wandsworth Council. (n.d.). Analogue to digital telecare switchover. Retrieved 5 September 2026, from https://www.wandsworth.gov.uk/health-and-social-care/adult-social-care/adult-social-care-information-and-advice/staying-independent-in-your-own-home/technology-to-help-you-stay-independent/landline-telephone-digital-switchover/telecare-digital-switchover

Written by Adrian James, Broadband Editor at BroadbandSwitch.uk (LinkedIn). Reviewed by Dr Alex J. Martin-Smith (LinkedIn). Published 5 September 2026, last verified 5 September 2026. The commitments described are voluntary industry commitments under government charters, and provider services change, so confirm the current position with your own provider and alarm service. This guide is information, not advice. If you believe a person's alarm is not working, contact the alarm provider immediately and make sure the person has another way to call for help.