BT decides to halt plans to remove landline phones

Rural campaigners had raised their concern over the move affecting those living in isolated rural areas

Countryside campaigners have welcomed BT’s decision to stop plans to replace landline phones with digital ones.

BT said the decision to pause the changes was made following customer feedback, with the chief executive admitting it had ‘got it wrong’ in a public statement.

The rollout, which saw copper landlines replaced in favour of fibre-optic cables, resulted in some customers in rural areas unable to call emergency services during stormy weather across the country earlier in the year.

BT and other telecom firms had pledged to equip all homes with digital "voice over internet phones" by 2025 as part of an update to the UK's communication infrastructure.

Rural campaigners at the Countryside Alliance had raised its concerns over the move affecting those living in isolated rural areas.

The group said mobile connectivity can be poor or non-existent in these areas, which led it to call for greater dialogue between BT and its customers before pressing ahead.

Sarah Lee, Countryside Alliance's director of policy, said: “The bleak reality for too many living in rural areas is they are not yet in a position to move over to digital to carry out every day functions, even if they wanted to.”

“We have been clear that those who live and work in the countryside must not be subject to a communications blackout and are pleased to see that BT has listened to the concerns of many of its customers.

“We welcome any move to bring the countryside in line with the 21st digital century, recognising the importance this will have in eventually making life better for rural people”.

Marc Allera, BT’s chief executive of consumer brands, apologised and said BT had “underestimated the disruptive impact this upgrade would have”.

He added that “in hindsight” the technology had been rolled out “too early”.

According to The Telegraph, some two million customers have already had their landlines removed to make way for the new systems.

And around 160,000 customers have been forced to make the switch on average each month since the roll out started in April last year.

However, it is not a permanent halt to the programme and the rollout will continue once the issues are resolved.

Mr Allera’s statement added: “We will aim to re-start once we have key solutions in place to provide our customers with more resilient connectivity.