Quizzes & Puzzles18 mins ago
Has Bt Just Made A Terrible Mistake?
With the current storm my Mums house and surrounding areas have been left without power since 11.53am, and its still has no power at the time of writing this.
One of our neighbours, who is a vulnerable lady on her own lost the use of her only connection with family etc.
Her landline has been cut off as it recently went digital and is connected to her broadband router.
I only found this out as I went to see if shes ok, but shes in tears as shes in darkness and can't contact anyone.
My point is when landlines were still analog they remained active despite a power outage.
Surely BT should recognise this has a mistake?
Answers
perseverer,
No her landline phone is actually quite modern, it one of those that you can walk around the house with, and charges at night.
But without electricity its useless.
To me this must be rendering millions of vunerable people without contact with their loved ones.
Before the digital change the landline never failed.
How on earth is this a possitive step forward, leaving vunerable elderly people without being able to reach out to their loved ones, ironically at a time they need them most.
Surely something needs to be done about this.
I think with future storms this might become more of a regular problem.
The switch to digital technology is a worldwide one, so BT is only adopting international standards.
From Ofcom:
"Making phone calls in a power cut:
Unlike some traditional corded analogue phones, a digital phone will only work in a power cut if it has a battery back-up.
If you are dependent on your landline phone – for example, if you don’t have a mobile phone or don’t have mobile signal at your home – your provider must offer you a solution to make sure you can contact the emergency services when a power cut occurs. For example, a mobile phone (if you have signal), or a battery back-up unit for your landline phone.
This solution should be provided free of charge to people who are dependent on their landline. If you are not eligible for a free resilience solution, you may be able to purchase one from your provider or another retailer – talk to your provider about options."
Source:
https:/
^^^ It's not misleading at all. It fully accepts that 'old style phones' won't work when the power drops out. What it's saying is that BT is obliged (under the terms of their licence to operate from Ofcom) to provide a back-up system to any of their customers who can't simply switch to using their own mobile phone. That could be achieved by either providing a mobile phone to a relevant customer or, more usually, by providing them with a battery-based back-up system to power their router when there's no mains power.
However it's up to individual customers to contact BT about their needs, as BT has no way of knowing which customers don't have access to mobile phones.