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

Britain's analogue telephone network is retired on 31 January 2027. In Exeter the households most affected are those where a personal alarm plugs into a telephone socket, because that socket is what stops working. Exeter has two councils involved rather than one, which complicates who to ask.

What is changing in Exeter, and when?

Every traditional line in the city is being moved onto a digital connection that carries calls over broadband, and the old network is retired on 31 January 2027. This is a telephone industry programme. Openreach is retiring the analogue network and each phone company migrates its own customers.

The original date was 31 December 2025, delayed so that vulnerable customers could be better protected. Openreach has said there will be no cliff edge on 1 February 2027, and that lines still on the old network will move to alternative arrangements rather than going dead overnight.

In Heavitree, St Thomas, Pinhoe or Whipton the visible change is small: a router, a phone plugged into it, the same number as before. What causes harm is the equipment sharing that line quietly, and a monitored alarm is the classic example.

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

It depends on the route it uses to reach a monitoring centre. Alarms with a mobile SIM inside carry on unchanged. Alarms that dial out through a telephone socket are at risk, and the failure is easy to miss. The base unit still shows a light, the pendant still clicks, and the fault only reveals itself in an emergency.

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 migrated to a digital landline without the communications provider, the customer or the telecare provider confirming a compatible and functioning solution is in place. The safeguard depends on somebody having recorded that the alarm exists.

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

1. Find the second lead. One cable from the base unit goes to the mains. If the other ends in a telephone socket, the alarm is using the line.
2. Check the telephone. Handset plugged into the wall means the line is still analogue. Handset plugged into the broadband router means it has already been converted, so test the alarm now.
3. Read the label underneath for the model and the supplier, then ring that supplier and ask whether the unit is digital ready. Note the date and the name of whoever answers.

Devon County Council's own description is a useful reminder. Its adult social care factsheet explains that with connected telecare, a unit is fitted to your telephone point and mains power supply, then connected to a monitoring centre. That telephone point is what the switchover changes.

What about alarms provided by Exeter City Council and Devon County Council?

Exeter is a two-tier area, and this trips people up. Adult social care assessments are Devon County Council's job. The community alarm most Exeter residents will have heard of comes from the city council, which runs the Home Call alarm service, publishing separate pages on how it works, what it costs and what to do in an emergency. If someone in your family says the council put the alarm in, the first question is which council.

Devon County Council does not publish a branded county-wide alarm name. Its factsheets describe connected telecare and stand alone telecare in general terms and point residents towards providers. So an alarm in an EX postcode might have come from the city council's Home Call service, from a housing association, from a hospital discharge arrangement, or from a private company.

On the switchover, we found nothing published for residents by either council. No timetable, no advice page, no letter template. That is worth saying plainly rather than implying a plan exists. It also means the asking falls to families, and the question belongs with whoever supplies the alarm.

What should Exeter residents do now?

Start with the phone company. Tell them a telecare alarm is used at the address by someone who depends on it, and ask for that to be recorded on the account. It is the step that puts the national protections to work. We have also written about what happens if a telecare alarm stops working.

Then think about power cuts, which matter in an area with weather coming off the Exe estuary. Ofcom requires providers to maintain at least one hour of access to emergency organisations during a power cut and to offer free battery backup to customers who depend on the landline to call 999. That comes from the phone company, and it protects the emergency call rather than the alarm's own operation.

Frequently asked questions

Where to start: check the back of the base unit, tell your phone provider a telecare device is in the house, and read our guide to the 2027 digital switchover. Our SOS pendant alarm page for Exeter shows what a digital ready device costs. 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.