An 84-year-old woman with dementia who cannot walk and has no mobile phone or computer was left without her BT landline after it was disconnected over unresolved billing issues. The pensioner had relied on the service as her main connection to the outside world and had kept her phone number for more than 50 years.
Family left 'so angry and in such a panic'
Her daughter, who wrote about the ordeal in a letter to The Telegraph, said she was left "so angry and in such a panic" after being told it could take another two weeks to restore the service. She said: "It's stressful enough looking after my mother with dementia. She often rings me for reassurance as she gets confused, and now she can't."
The pensioner, who has been a BT customer for around 60 years, had spent seven weeks in hospital and was due to return home. But her daughter said there had been no warning that her phone would be disconnected.
Landline described as her lifeline
"She does not have a mobile phone or computer," she wrote. "Her only way of contacting people – and being connected to the outside world – is through her home phone. Her landline is her lifeline."
BT reportedly told the family the service had been disconnected because of a billing problem, although her daughter believed the issue had already been resolved. She added that BT told her that when the service was restored, her mother would receive a new telephone number rather than the one she had used for more than five decades.
Vulnerable customers and the digital switchover
Ofcom said there were 1.1 million voice-only landline customers in the UK in 2020, with more than three-quarters using BT. The regulator has noted that this shrinking group tends to include older customers who switch providers less frequently.
Telecoms firms are required to have policies for identifying and supporting vulnerable customers. Ofcom has repeatedly stressed the importance of protecting people who depend heavily on their home phone as the UK moves from analogue to digital landlines.
BT warns that losing a home phone service can mean customers cannot make or receive calls, including calls to emergency services.
The nationwide switchover is due to be completed by January 2027, with households being moved away from the old copper-based phone network and onto services which make calls using a broadband connection.
