BT Digital Switchover

JJforever

Hi everyone

As you all know BT are going to have a digital switchover of landlines.  In their letter they mention if there is a power outage or your broadband is down then you won't be able to make calls including 999.  Obviously if you have a mobile that is charged you are ok.  I don't have a mobile.  On their letter they said to contact them if this was the case.  Well I contacted them and because I'm not a 'vulnerable' person they wanted to charge me £85 for some kind of temporary 'power unit'?  How can that be fair? Isn't there any kind of obligation on their part?

Any advice, apart from being forced to get a mobile?

Thank you in advance.

400ixl

No, they are not obliged.

If you need to have the phone available in the event of a local power cut then your router will need a battery backup which is what they are offering to sell you.

Do you need to have that level of surety of phone line? if you do, you could buy your own for under £40.

Example: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Angelliu-Backup-Rechargeable-Battery-9000mAh-White/dp/B09CH1KSDC

iniltous

Why do you think BT should supply you with anything if you are not eligible, when was the last time you had to call the emergency services during a power cut ( probably never )
If you genuinely don’t have a mobile phone and you pay BT for you phone ( so you are a BT customer rather than simply using what some people incorrectly call a ‘BT’ line ) what would you do if it developed a fault now ( so before being moved to Digtial Voice ) would you move out for the duration of the fault ? , if you wouldn’t ( and you wouldn’t ) then why does being on DV frighten you more than that  ?
No one bought you a TV when the analogue TV signal was removed, no one bought you a car when leaded petrol was removed from sale , if you really feel you need a battery back up , but you are not classed as vulnerable, simply buy one yourself 
BT have less than 25% of the market , why should BT have to provide BBU when no one else has to ?

Neil_Jones

JJforever said:

Hi everyone

As you all know BT are going to have a digital switchover of landlines.  In their letter they mention if there is a power outage or your broadband is down then you won't be able to make calls including 999.  Obviously if you have a mobile that is charged you are ok.  I don't have a mobile.  On their letter they said to contact them if this was the case.  Well I contacted them and because I'm not a 'vulnerable' person they wanted to charge me £85 for some kind of temporary 'power unit'?  How can that be fair? Isn't there any kind of obligation on their part?

Any advice, apart from being forced to get a mobile?

Thank you in advance.

So buy a  mobile phone then. 

You'll probably need a mobile number in due course anyway to set up email addresses, two factor verification etc for various online services if you haven't already done so...

400ixl

Neil_Jones said:

So buy a  mobile phone then. 

You'll probably need a mobile number in due course anyway to set up email addresses, two factor verification etc for various online services if you haven't already done so...

Why is that then? You can do SMS over a landline phone and over a digital voice phone. You can get 2FA codes sent to email which doesn't need a mobile.

If someone doesn't need a mobile today, there is currently no reason they need one in the future. Than may of course change, but then it may not.

OP specifically asked for options other than getting a mobile phone.

littleboo

There is no obligation for BT to provide power in your home, that's what power companies are for

Neil_Jones

400ixl said:

OP specifically asked for options other than getting a mobile phone.

What the OP wants and what the OP can have are two entirely different things.

If they don't want to pay £85 and they're not vulnerable and they don't want to buy their own  power back up, then the other other option to my mind (besides bashing down a neighbour's door when they may not even be in) would be a mobile.  Or run and hope a police car is round the corner when the emergency comes.

35har1old

400ixl said:

Neil_Jones said:

So buy a  mobile phone then. 

You'll probably need a mobile number in due course anyway to set up email addresses, two factor verification etc for various online services if you haven't already done so...

Why is that then? You can do SMS over a landline phone and over a digital voice phone. You can get 2FA codes sent to email which doesn't need a mobile.

If someone doesn't need a mobile today, there is currently no reason they need one in the future. Than may of course change, but then it may not.

OP specifically asked for options other than getting a mobile phone.

The device used to receive the email may require a power supply as the OP is concerned  about lost of power the mobile options is the best but its not a absolute guarantee as in a major lose of power the mast may go down as well

JJforever

Hi All

Thank you for your replies.  Just thought I would reply:-

iniltous said:

Why do you think BT should supply you with anything if you are not eligible, when was the last time you had to call the emergency services during a power cut ( probably never )
If you genuinely don’t have a mobile phone and you pay BT for you phone ( so you are a BT customer rather than simply using what some people incorrectly call a ‘BT’ line ) what would you do if it developed a fault now ( so before being moved to Digtial Voice ) would you move out for the duration of the fault ? , if you wouldn’t ( and you wouldn’t ) then why does being on DV frighten you more than that  ?
No one bought you a TV when the analogue TV signal was removed, no one bought you a car when leaded petrol was removed from sale , if you really feel you need a battery back up , but you are not classed as vulnerable, simply buy one yourself 
BT have less than 25% of the market , why should BT have to provide BBU when no one else has to ?

I really don't have a mobile but you are right about everything else.  I am old enough to remember when we didn't have mobile phones and even when people didn't have a phone in their house.  I guess in this modern world I had forgotten what it was like.  I really didn't expect to get the power unit for free but didn't realise it would be that expensive, obviously not knowing anything about it.   Having looked it up on Amazon as a previous poster suggested I can see that the cost is quite reasonable.

So thank you to everyone who replied and I'll have to decide between a power back up and a mobile.

matelodave

JJforever said:

Hi All

Thank you for your replies.  Just thought I would reply:-

iniltous said:

Why do you think BT should supply you with anything if you are not eligible, when was the last time you had to call the emergency services during a power cut ( probably never )
If you genuinely don’t have a mobile phone and you pay BT for you phone ( so you are a BT customer rather than simply using what some people incorrectly call a ‘BT’ line ) what would you do if it developed a fault now ( so before being moved to Digtial Voice ) would you move out for the duration of the fault ? , if you wouldn’t ( and you wouldn’t ) then why does being on DV frighten you more than that  ?
No one bought you a TV when the analogue TV signal was removed, no one bought you a car when leaded petrol was removed from sale , if you really feel you need a battery back up , but you are not classed as vulnerable, simply buy one yourself 
BT have less than 25% of the market , why should BT have to provide BBU when no one else has to ?

I really don't have a mobile but you are right about everything else.  I am old enough to remember when we didn't have mobile phones and even when people didn't have a phone in their house.  I guess in this modern world I had forgotten what it was like.  I really didn't expect to get the power unit for free but didn't realise it would be that expensive, obviously not knowing anything about it.   Having looked it up on Amazon as a previous poster suggested I can see that the cost is quite reasonable.

So thank you to everyone who replied and I'll have to decide between a power back up and a mobile.

you can get a mobile phone for less than £15 from Argos and a Paygo sim from one of the providers which would be much more useful than a back-up power unit to keep your home phone working for an hour or so.