A 75-year-old stroke sufferer was unable to call 999 after his BT landline was cut off.
Graham Chapman and his wife, Jan, spent two weeks without a landline because it had been cut off during upgrades to their fibre broadband.
The couple from Horsehay, Shropshire, were only able to call an ambulance thanks to access to a mobile phone.
Graham blamed a broken system that wasn’t fit for purpose after he spent a week in hospital.
A BT spokesperson said they were ‘very sorry that the Chapmans’ landline phone was not working,’ and that they have now ‘restored their service.’
Landline operators are switching every home phone in the UK to an internet-based connection instead of traditional, copper-wire cables.
On January 12, work began at the Chapmans’ home to upgrade the fibre broadband – but ‘engineers could not connect them because the network infrastructure was not in place at the property’, say BT.
Despite suffering a stroke, Graham was able to use his own mobile phone to call for an ambulance before spending a week in Telford’s Princess Royal Hospital.
Graham Chapman was able to use his own mobile phone to call for an ambulance before spending a week in Telford’s Princess Royal Hospital
Jan said the stress of trying to get their landline fixed has ended up ‘taking more precedence than the stroke’.
‘I felt really stressed out,’ she said, adding she ‘lifted the phone and it was completely dead.’
‘I thought at the time, and I still do, that it’s the worst thing that’s happened to me.’
Graham is concerned that other older people who rely on landlines could have a similar experience.
‘I can foresee numerous elderly people who rely upon their landline being cut off completely,’ he said.
In March last year, North Shropshire MP and chair of the Digital Communities All-Party Parliamentary Group, Helen Morgan, said: ‘The risk to life if residents are not safely migrated is real. A digital transformation project of this kind cannot be allowed to be led by industry operatives alone.’
In December 2023, telecoms firms paused making vulnerable customers switch to digital landlines after ‘serious incidents’ where telecare devices stopped working.
The Liberal Democrat MP said people living in rural communities, such as North Shropshire, were particularly exposed during prolonged power cuts and a reliable system was needed to protect them.
‘Our residents deserve to know that they can always call for help in an emergency, whatever the weather,’ she added.
A BT spokesperson said: ‘We’re very sorry that the Chapmans’ landline phone was not working, following a broadband upgrade order. We have restored their landline service and confirmed that all is working. The Chapmans will receive automatic compensation for the period they were unable to use their landline, and their complaint has been resolved.’
BT say that the Chapman’s were already on Digital Voice, and this was working before the issue.
Digital Voice refers to the home phone service that operates over a broadband connection instead of the traditional analogue copper network, offering clearer, high-definition (HD) calls. It is part of the UK’s nationwide switchover to digital.
BT says the landline stopped working because a fibre broadband order was cancelled and left a record mismatch on their account. The engineer was unable to connect them to fibre broadband because the network infrastructure was not in place at their property.
