The Digital Switchover in Birmingham: What It Means for Your Personal Alarm

On 31 January 2027 the old analogue phone network is switched off for good. Every landline from Sutton Coldfield to Northfield becomes digital. If your mum or dad has a pendant alarm that plugs into the phone socket, it may stop being able to call for help, and that includes many alarms supplied by Birmingham City Council.

What is changing in Birmingham, and when?

Openreach is retiring the analogue telephone network by 31 January 2027, and every home line in Birmingham moves onto a digital service that carries calls over broadband. Nothing about the address or the phone number changes. What changes is the socket: the handset plugs into the router instead of the wall. This is an industry led programme rather than a council decision, though Ofcom and government both have formal roles in protecting customers.

Mobile networks are changing alongside the landline. Ofcom confirmed that 3G networks are now switched off, and 2G closures have been announced from May 2029 by EE and summer 2029 by Virgin Media O2. That matters here because many alarms sold privately over the last decade use a mobile SIM, and an old 3G only device has already lost its connection.

Will my personal alarm still work after the switch-off?

If the alarm dials out over the analogue phone line, it needs checking and probably replacing. Analogue alarms signal using audio tones down a copper pair, and a digital line does not always carry those tones cleanly. The Telecare National Action Plan from DHSC and DSIT commits that no telecare user should be moved to a digital landline until someone has confirmed a compatible and working telecare solution is in place, but that only works if the phone company knows an alarm is there.

Power matters too. A digital landline runs off the broadband router, so a power cut in Kings Heath or Erdington takes the phone with it. Ofcom requires providers to give at least one hour of access to emergency organisations during a power cut, and to offer battery backup free of charge where someone depends on the landline to call 999. That protects calls to the emergency services, not the alarm itself.

How do I check whether my alarm uses the phone line?

1. Trace the cable. A thin cable into a white phone socket means analogue and at risk. A cable into the broadband router means it has already moved. Only a power lead means a mobile unit.
2. Identify the monitoring centre. Careline units carry council branding. Private units usually have a sticker with a company name. Ring whoever it is and ask whether the unit is digital ready.
3. Do a test call. Press the button, say it is a test, and confirm the operator can hear you. Birmingham City Council publishes guidance on testing Careline equipment, and a test call is the only proof the whole chain works.

What about alarms provided by Birmingham City Council?

Birmingham City Council runs Careline, which it describes on its own website as a 24 hour emergency contact service run by the Council. It sits within the sheltered housing part of the council site and covers both sheltered schemes and people in ordinary homes across the city. The Careline team can be reached on 0121 303 4205.

Careline offers a technology enabled care range well beyond the pendant, including fall detectors, bed and chair occupancy sensors, property exit sensors, epilepsy sensors, flood and smoke detectors, pill dispensers, pull cords and mobile GPS devices. The council notes this equipment is not included in the weekly charge and is an additional cost. Every peripheral has to talk to the base unit, so if the base unit changes the peripherals need checking too.

What Birmingham City Council has not done is publish a page explaining what it is doing about the analogue to digital migration of Careline, or a timetable for upgrading customers. Several other English councils have published exactly that. If Careline is in use in your family, ring the team and ask three plain questions: is my base unit digital ready, when will it be swapped, and what if my phone line is upgraded first.

What should Birmingham residents do now?

Tell the landline provider first. One call saying "someone in this house uses a personal alarm" gets the household flagged, and it is the most useful thing you can do before an engineer turns up.

Then look at the alarm itself. If it is a Careline unit, ring Careline. If it came from a private company or was bought years ago as a gift, treat it as suspect until proven otherwise. A mobile connected alarm avoids the landline question entirely, which is useful in a flat or where the broadband is in someone else's name. Any replacement should be on 4G.

Frequently asked questions

Where to start: ring Careline or your alarm provider, tell your phone company an alarm is in use, then plan a digital ready replacement. See our SOS pendant alarms in Birmingham page, our digital switchover guide, or read what happens if a telecare alarm stops working. Ofcom explains the 3G switch off. Call our UK team on 01704 332840.

Holden Grange is a UK telecare provider based in Southport, a TSA member and certified under the TEC Quality Standards Framework. Our alarm receiving centre is UK based and operates 24 hours a day.