@Vorlon,

If I was in your position I would research other companies that could provide a much better service than the one your mother is with at the moment. I am sure there are companies that are far more forward thinking when it comes to wearable alarms. There might be one out there that has an app that works on a smart watch or mobile phone. This might be something that your mother might be able to wear that would even work when she's out and about if she gets into difficulties.

HTH,

Some of the reticence being expressed re new ‘digital voice’ services and care/personal alarms is due to their being no failover power supply for the CP routers that provide this type of voice service.

With the original exchange based voice setup, there were large standalone diesel generators which would kick in if mains power was lost to the exchange voice equipment. Also batteries in street DSLAM cabinets doing similar … but the routers at the customer end very often don’t have any kind of UPS power back up … so if the power goes off, the personal alarms don’t work.

In reply to a post by Vorlon:

Would you believe Zarjaz my mums alarm system is supported by (not hers) a nearby Council!

I would. Certainly round this way the local council were moving their care alarms over mobile based service, with a battery back up unit . This was easily a couple of years ago when I used to deal with such things .

Thanks Zarjaz,

@ Mking

I know my mother is happy with the Pendant type alarm she uses at present and I have relayed all of the help I've been given on here, which has been very helpful. I think we will be looking at other Personal care alarm providers in the meantime as has been suggested. I think her only reluctance is due to getting to know some of the people answering the alarm calls etc.

So am I right in assuming that IF she moves to EE and takes on one of their digital phone hubs, that any personal alarm provider with suitably upgraded equipment will be able to function via the EE hub? Then I assume she would need to get her broadband separately, where I think full fibre is available?

If you are moving care alarm provider then you might as well go straight to something that talks over the internet and has a cellular backup, e.g.:

https://www.tunstall.co.uk/products/lifeline-home-un...

The only reason to be interested in compatibility with a phone line would be if you couldn't change the alarm device.

A second vote for the new Tunstall kit Vorlon. Seen it in action. Easy to use.

As I understood it the "New Upgraded Equipment" alarm providers were talking about would be supported by EE's digital phone hub? - and equipment too old that required an OpenReach analogue phone line would essentially be scrapped?

I was aware that there were some Personal home alarms that worked with mobile data etc and therefore there were no concerns over phone line compatibility.

Are you saying Jpm, that there are services that can run across any internet connection, so IF a digital landline phone with your old telephone number was not required, a personal care alarm could connect via whatever internet access you have?

In reply to a post by Vorlon:

Thanks Zarjaz,

@ Mking

I know my mother is happy with the Pendant type alarm she uses at present and I have relayed all of the help I've been given on here, which has been very helpful. I think we will be looking at other Personal care alarm providers in the meantime as has been suggested. I think her only reluctance is due to getting to know some of the people answering the alarm calls etc.

So am I right in assuming that IF she moves to EE and takes on one of their digital phone hubs, that any personal alarm provider with suitably upgraded equipment will be able to function via the EE hub? Then I assume she would need to get her broadband separately, where I think full fibre is available?

With all due respect to EE, BT, Plusnet and the whole BT Group of companies - of course they are going to recommend one another moving forward. They would have little interest in pointing you to a competitor.

This is however not your only course of action. Given the current personal alarm provider is frankly a bit of a shower for not having their very basic act together - I would heed the other advice of folks here and look elsewhere.

The wider corollary to consider is what is the actual requirement (in 2026) to tie yourself (your mother) into paying for a relatively expensive ‘land-line’ substitute? I’ve nothing against BT/EE/PN, per se, but there are vastly cheaper ways of getting a “land line” these days and really ask yourself, do we *actually* need to be paying landline rental when there are very many other good communications alternatives such as pure internet/WiFi or LTE/4/5G mobile that much better personal alarm providers have adopted and tested many, many years ago.

As part of any conversation you should consider the resilience of the solution. As Zarjaz has explained the existing copper line will have service maintained due to a back-up power source at the telephone exchange and requires no additional back-up from your mother's end.

Once she is moved to the internet based phone system (even if provided down the same copper wire) she will not be able to access the Alarm service unless she has some sort of power back-up to keep the router live. ISPs are supposed to make provision for vulnerable customers to maintain telephone contact. Some are better at that than others but the norm is a battery back-up which lasts for a couple of hours. You will know the history of power cuts at your mother's house but in rural areas a couple of hours barely scratches the surface of the typical power cut.

If the copper connection is retained the local cabinet also needs power to convert the incoming fibre signal to an electrical signal. Our local cabinet has battery back-up which lasts for 3 to 4 hours in a power cut so again often well short of the actual duration of the outage. Mobile phone masts last a similar length of time. Power cuts tend to be resolved more quickly in urban areas so you will need to decide what level of resilience is required for your mother's situation.

In reply to a post by Vorlon:

As I understood it the "New Upgraded Equipment" alarm providers were talking about would be supported by EE's digital phone hub? - and equipment too old that required an OpenReach analogue phone line would essentially be scrapped?

I was aware that there were some Personal home alarms that worked with mobile data etc and therefore there were no concerns over phone line compatibility.

Are you saying Jpm, that there are services that can run across any internet connection, so IF a digital landline phone with your old telephone number was not required, a personal care alarm could connect via whatever internet access you have?

I think I'm struggling to make this clear so other posters might need to step in.

There are three types of care alarm:
- A device connected to the PSTN which is closing in a few months. The provider of the alarm hasn't bothered to test for compatibility with 'Digital Voice' solutions (remember this is just a telephone socket in the back of a router that produces dial tone) so they say they either cannot guarantee functionality, or say it won't work.
- A device connected to the PSTN which is closing in a few months, but the provider has tested it with 'Digital Voice' and are happy it works. You can move to any ISP providing a 'Digital Voice' service, and plug the base station into the router, and it carries on dialling up the monitoring centre as usual.
- A more modern unit which communicates via IP, using ethernet and cellular paths. This doesn't care if you have a PSTN landline or a 'Digital Voice' service because it doesn't use it.

The provider of the care alarm needs to be the one to tell you what their system is supported with. As others have said, someone who is asked in July 2026 if their product works on the BT Digital Voice service and cannot give you an answer is not one I would trust with life critical responsibilities.