Staying connected: the digital landline switchover

25th November 2025

Across the UK, the digital landline switchover is no longer a distant policy shift; it is beginning to shape the conversations people are having with neighbours, carers, housing teams, and community organisations.

Residents want to understand what the change will mean in the moments that matter - whether their phone will still work, how to check a pendant alarm, and what to do if they do not use broadband. Our recent Connected Together webinar, delivered in partnership with BT, brought these concerns into focus and showed how strongly councils, housing providers, and community groups are looking for reliable messaging they can share with clarity and confidence.

To support that work, everyone can now submit a request for a printed leaflet prepared by the BT Digital Voice team. It sets out the essentials in a format suited to real conversations - the pause at a doorway, the chat over a cup of tea, the few minutes with a resident who prefers information they can hold rather than look up online. BT has also developed the Connected Together Conversation Starter Pack, designed to help organisations begin practical, informed discussions within their communities.

The Digital Poverty Alliance (DPA) has created a complementary factsheet to sit alongside this work. It offers clear, steady messaging about what is changing, who may be most affected, and the simple checks households can begin making now. It reinforces BT's guidance and gives organisations a dependable reference point for the conversations already underway across the country.

"The switchover will only work well if the right information reaches the right people early," said Elizabeth Anderson, CEO, Digital Poverty Alliance. "When organisations can share clear guidance with the communities they know best, the transition becomes not just manageable, but genuinely safe."

4 November 2025
Our latest policy brief, 2G/3G Switch-Off: Readiness and Risk, examines what this shift means for households already facing digital poverty. The withdrawal of legacy networks assumes that everyone can afford, understand, and access newer technology. For many, this is not the case. Nineteen million adults in the UK experience one or more forms of digital poverty, and one in two older adults remain digitally excluded. For those affected, upgrading a phone or alarm system is not a routine purchase but an unaffordable necessity.

The brief highlights how, without targeted support, the phase-out could sever a digital lifeline - cutting people off from family, healthcare, and emergency systems that depend on older connectivity. Some providers are taking positive steps: Virgin Media O2, for instance, has offered free 4G-ready handsets to customers at risk of losing service. But isolated good practice cannot replace coordinated national action.

"As the UK moves toward retiring its 2G and 3G networks, we cannot allow progress to come at the cost of connection," said Elizabeth Anderson, CEO, Digital Poverty Alliance. “The people most at risk are often those least able to upgrade – older adults, those on low incomes, and individuals who depend on telecare for safety. Unless action is taken now, the switch-off could disconnect exactly those who rely on these systems the most.”

Technological progress should widen access, not narrow it. When connection becomes a condition of participation, exclusion is no longer a by-product – it is a design flaw.

The Digital Poverty Alliance (DPA) calls for government, regulators, and industry to ensure the transition is inclusive and equitable through practical measures: free replacement of affected telecare and alarm devices, affordable upgrade paths for customers in digital poverty, coordinated offline awareness campaigns, and mandatory vulnerability training for provider staff.

Read the full brief here
https://digitalpovertyalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Policy-Brief_2G-3G-Sunsetting.pdf