Digital switch over - notifying vulnerability

[#1]

We have an emergency care alarm system due to disability/vulnerability.  It works through the landline.  Online info from Gov.uk and OFCOM says we need to notify our provider (i.e. Plusnet) of this so that whatever steps are needed to ensure we are not left without a connection in a power cut (once the digital switch occurs) are taken.  (I assume Plusnet will need to inform BT.)  

Can someone please tell me how we make this notification to Plusnet.  (In my opinion it should be in writing and not by phone.)

Thank you.

[#2]

@cornish41  Welcome to the Plusnet Community Fora.

Unless a Plusnet agent picks up this post you should ring in and report that you are vulnerable. This is regardless of the switch off of the PSTN. Assuming that you take your phone service from Plusnet, not BT, the switch off of your PSTN service is currently programmed to happen towards the end of next year.

It might also help if you assign an authorised person if you need help with your account.

Moderator's note:
Thread moved from Full Fibre to My Account/Billing

[#3]

Also talk to the alarm provider, some are moving from landline to a SIM and using mobile signal with built in battery backup, otherwise  battery backup for the ONT and alarm supplier's kit will be required.

[#4]

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@nitram wrote:

Also talk to the alarm provider, some are moving from landline to a SIM and using mobile signal with built in battery backup, otherwise  battery backup for the ONT and alarm supplier's kit will be required.

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Out if interest, do you happen to know how this copes during a power outage?

The reason I ask is that we have an elderly relative in a similar situation, with a fall alarm/alert bracelet gadget that works via her landline phone.  Her phone provider aren't responding at all to questions about this, so I'm assuming that we will have to sort things out for her before the switch over happens.

Based on my experience (and some experiments in our local area) I've confirmed that the majority of the smaller mobile phone masts stop working if there's a power cut.  In our area I've only found one mast within 10 miles of us that has a backup power system, and that's only because that same mast has a TV relay transmitter on it.

Whilst the idea of a mobile-connected fall/emergency alarm, with it's own battery back up sounds an attractive idea, if the local mobile network goes down during a power cut then it wouldn't be the best option, perhaps.  I believe that once everyone has fibre to their home almost all of these issues get resolved, and a simple battery back up for the alarm should be reliable.

It would be very helpful to get some definitive advice as to how best to be sure that emergency services like this can be reliably maintained once the PSTN is no more.  Much as the PSTN has attracted criticism its quality of service over the years, I do rather think that the very useful attribute of it being independently powered, so it keeps working when the power goes off, will be greatly missed by those that rely on it for emergency purposes.  I fear people will most probably die needlessly because there doesn't seem to be a very joined up solution to this issue.

[#5]

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@JSHarris wrote:

.  I fear people will most probably die needlessly because there doesn't seem to be a very joined up solution to this issue

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I fear that you are correct. This is a widespread problem in many areas, notwithstanding those in rural areas with no mobile reception at any time.

[#6]

@JSHarris according to this https://www.ageuk.org.uk/products/mobility-and-independence-at-home/personal-alarms/ they are multi-network SIMs. So I guess the theory is that there is at least one usable mast within range that has battery backup.

[#7]

What is the backup however, in 'remote' areas with no mobile signal what so ever. 

Remote for us is a small village just 5 miles from a city centre.

[#8]

@MisterW 

Unfortunately, we live in an area (only 12 miles or so outside a city) with zero mobile coverage from any provider, using a phone or any other device inside the house.  I guess our situation is similar to that described by @mystreet1 .

Foreseeing that we will have a problem come the PSTN switch off (we're both thankfully fit and able, but in our 70's) I've invested in a high gain Mikrotik dish antenna, mounted to a pole on the roof, that can just about get a usable mobile signal from the only mast near us.  By a stroke of luck that mast is a big one (over 100ft high) and it has a generator building within the compound that keeps it powered if there's a power cut.

My experience in researching the provisions that communications providers were making for those in a situation like us, with either a very poor, or non existent, mobile signal when the PSTN gets turned off next year wasn't reassuring.  I had hoped that FTTP might be the answer, as that doesn't fall over when the grid goes down (or so I've been told) and all that's needed to keep an FTTP connection going is a local battery backup system (and I've been told these are available for just this purpose).  Sadly we're not going to get FTTP until some time after 2030.

There will be a fair few people impacted by the inability of a mobile option to work, I'm sure, as the mobile coverage maps that the providers use to reassure government are, in my experience, hopelessly inaccurate.  For example, all four mobile networks say they provide coverage here, some being so bold as to state that coverage is "good indoors and out".  The reality is that ONE provider has a very faint signal that can just about be used with a large, very high gain, dish antenna pointing directly at the mast from a roof top position.  That provider (O2) is closest to being honest, too, as they state that the signal here is "OK outdoors, poor indoors".  It's still an outright lie, but not as big a lie as that from the other operators!

[#9]

My mother is with Telecare 24. She currently has a PSTN based fall alarm. The company have made no comment to me/her about changing, but I've noticed they now do a SIM based alarm, that doesn't use a VoIP or PSTN line at all. I phoned the company, they won't automatically replace it, I have to take the initiative and upgraded off my/her own bat. Which I will.

It is 48 hr battery back up (Assuming, of course, the local base station stays up) The SIM is an 'all network' one, so that's slightly more helpful.  

https://www.telecare24.co.uk/products/digital-fall-alarm-plan/

Her contract with PlusNet expires in April 2025, so that's when I need to migrate her to another ISP with some form of embedded VoIP service. I don't want to complicate her life any further with a third party VoIP service over PlusNet.

By the way, on a related subject, there's some doubt some present PSTN fall alarms will work properly over VoIP, because they use might use propriety DTMF 'style' modem tones, that may not be recognised by some VoIP codecs. The usual method of transporting DTMF tones via VoIP is to decode them, send them as raw data, and re-generate the codes at the far end. That may not work with some fall alarms........ 

[#10]

The usual method of transporting DTMF tones via VoIP is to decode them, send them as raw data, and re-generate the codes at the far end. That may not work with some fall alarms........  

That only applies to 'in call' tones. Tones used during dialling should be fine.

[#11]

So, the key requirements seem to depend on a number of uncertain variables being resolved by someone, with little in the way of certainty as to who that "someone" may be.  On the face of it it doesn't seem an insurmountable problem.  For those lucky enough to live somewhere where the mobile coverage is both decent and stays up during a power cut then it looks like one of the systems referred to by Age Concern might be a suitable replacement.

For anyone that happens to be unlucky enough to live in an area where either mobile coverage fails during a power cut (which seems to be a fairly large part of the UK from what I've been able to find out) or who lives in an area where mobile coverage is poor, or even non-existent, then alternative options seem to be very thin on the ground.

Anyone lucky enough to have FTTP should be OK, based on what I've been able to find out, as that should stay working as long as there's a back up battery unit in the house.  Anyone not able to get FTTP, and who cannot get a reliable mobile signal during a power cut is a bit stuck, it seems.  One option I looked at is Starlink, as that seems to offer a fairly reliable service and is unaffected by local power outages, but it uses a lot of power, so needs a pretty hefty battery backup system (and, incidentally, costs a fair bit both in fees and in the high electricity usage).

The logical thing to do would be to delay the PSTN switch off until after FTTP was rolled out.  That seems to me to be far and away the best solution, as FTTP should be even more reliable than the PSTN copper wires.  Such a policy would also speed up the roll out of FTTP, which would be a massive boon for those of us that have to put up with slow internet because of the limitations of the copper loop.

[#12]

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@MisterW wrote:

The usual method of transporting DTMF tones via VoIP is to decode them, send them as raw data, and re-generate the codes at the far end. That may not work with some fall alarms........  

That only applies to 'in call' tones. Tones used during dialling should be fine.

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Yes, though (and it's not something to easily experiment with !) my mother's box does appear to send tones once the 'call' is established. That's the concern, and another good reason to switch to something totally 'GSM/4G' based

[#13]

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@Mark63 wrote:That's the concern, and another good reason to switch to something totally 'GSM/4G' base

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My concern would be whether or not anything wholly reliant on a mobile operator (of any flavour) would continue to work during a power cut.

In the case of our elderly (she's just turned 90) relative, we've had an alert from her bracelet twice.  Both times it was during a power cut, once when she'd missed the last couple of steps coming down the stairs, once when she'd tripped over a footstool in the dark.

I'm certain this strongly biases my point of view of this issue, but knowing that she has no mobile coverage at all on the ground and first floor, and only very patchy coverage from the attic rooms, I don't have a great deal of confidence that any mobile-based solution would be reliable.  I've yet to find out whether the mobile masts in her area stay powered during a power cut, but frankly I doubt it, as it seems that only the very large installations have backup generators.  All of the "pole-type" mobile masts are like street lights, and go off if there's a power cut.

For us a 4G solution (with local backup battery) can be just about be made to work for voice-bandwidth comms (there's no 5G here, nor ever likely to be, as the frequencies are too high to get down into the valleys around here), but it was a significant investment (it cost me several hundred pounds to buy the dish and get it installed on a pole on the roof).  It was a lot cheaper than any other option, though.  I explored the option of getting FTTP, and a group of us locally in a similar predicament explored investing in a local "pico cell" to give us mobile coverage along the valley, but the costs of either were eye-wateringly high (tens of thousands for each of us, as a "group buy").  It has allowed me to give our (older than us) neighbours an emergency call system, though, using an off-the-shelf  (Ubiquiti WiFi) point-to-point link to their house (as an aside, this was very easy to set up, not too costly, and works very well).

[#14]

And to add to confusion lurking in the wings is 'SOTAP for Analogue'

https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2023/11/openreach-prep-alternative-uk-analogue-style-phone-pro...

[#15]

Theory? Obviously not in the scientific sense. An hypothesis, perhaps. Or a vague hope/assumption?