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

The analogue telephone network closes on 31 January 2027. If a pendant alarm in a Doncaster home plugs into a phone socket, the connection it relies on is the exact thing being switched off. City of Doncaster Council runs its own Home Alarm Service and its own alarm receiving centre. Here is what to check.

What is changing in Doncaster, and when?

All traditional landlines in the borough are being converted so that calls travel over broadband instead of copper, and the network behind the old lines is retired on 31 January 2027. This is a telephone industry programme rather than a council one. Openreach is retiring the analogue network, and your own provider handles the move.

The deadline was originally 31 December 2025 and was pushed back to allow better protection for vulnerable customers. Openreach has said there will be no cliff edge on 1 February 2027, with any remaining lines moved to alternative arrangements rather than being cut off.

For most homes in Balby, Bentley, Armthorpe or Wheatley the change looks like a new router and a telephone plugged into it. The trouble comes from equipment that borrows the line without anyone noticing, and in Doncaster that is very often a home alarm.

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

That depends on how it reaches the people who answer it. Alarms with a mobile SIM inside are not affected, because they never used the telephone line. Alarms that dial out from a telephone socket are the ones at risk, and the failure is a silent one. Lights stay on, the pendant still clicks, and nothing shows up until the day someone presses it in earnest.

Around two million people in the UK use telecare, according to the Telecare National Action Plan published by the Department of Health and Social Care and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology. It commits that no telecare user will be moved to a digital landline without the communications provider, the customer or the telecare provider confirming that a compatible and functioning solution is in place. That only helps if the alarm has been declared.

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

1. Follow the second cable. The base unit has one lead to the mains. If the other one runs into a telephone socket, the alarm depends on the line.
2. Look at the telephone. Still plugged into a socket on the wall means the line is analogue for now. Plugged into the broadband router means it has already changed, and the alarm should be checked straight away.
3. Turn the unit over. Note the model and the supplier printed underneath, then ring that supplier and ask a single question: is this device digital ready before 31 January 2027.

Our guide to whether an alarm needs wifi or a landline explains the difference in more detail.

What about alarms provided by City of Doncaster Council?

The council calls it the Home Alarm Service, sometimes written as pendant alarms and telecare. It is not branded Careline or Lifeline, so if one of those names comes up the alarm came from somewhere else. The published charge is £4.50 plus VAT a week for monitoring, rising to £6.30 a week if you add the response service where a member of staff attends. Charges are paid quarterly in advance by direct debit, and you apply online or by telephoning 01302 862164.

One thing sets Doncaster apart from many councils. It runs its own alarm receiving centre rather than contracting the monitoring out, as its alarm receiving centre privacy notice makes clear. That notice also refers to a GPS mobile pendant, which is a mobile device rather than a landline one. So the council does hold equipment independent of the phone line.

What the council has not done is publish anything for residents about the switchover. We found no page, no timetable and no advice note about moving Home Alarm Service users from analogue to digital. That silence is not evidence that nothing is happening, but it does mean the only reliable answer comes from ringing the service and asking about your own equipment.

What should Doncaster residents do now?

Contact the telephone provider first. Say clearly that a telecare alarm is used at the address and that someone depends on it, and ask for it to be recorded. That is the trigger for the national safeguards.

Then plan for power cuts. Ofcom requires providers to give at least one hour of access to emergency organisations when the power goes, and to offer free battery backup to customers who rely on the landline for 999 calls. The unit comes from the telephone company, not the alarm service, and it covers your route to the emergency services rather than the alarm itself.

Frequently asked questions

Where to start: check the cable at the back of the alarm, tell your phone provider it is there, and read our explanation of the 2027 digital switchover. Our SOS pendant alarm page for Doncaster covers the equipment and monthly cost. 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.