The Digital Switchover in Leicester: What It Means for Your Personal Alarm
Britain's analogue phone network is switched off on 31 January 2027. Any personal alarm in Leicester that dials out through a phone socket could stop reaching a monitoring centre after that. Leicester City Council runs telecare for the city, but the arrangements change the moment you cross into Oadby, Wigston or Blaby, so who supplied the alarm matters.
Key facts
- The analogue telephone network (PSTN) is retired on 31 January 2027.
- Leicester City Council is the unitary authority for the city. Leicestershire County Council covers the towns outside the boundary.
- Leicester sits in the LE postcode area: LE1 to LE5 across the city, with LE18, LE19 and parts of LE7 reaching Wigston, Enderby and Syston.
- Around 2 million people in the UK use telecare, according to the Telecare National Action Plan.
What is changing in Leicester, and when?
Every landline is moving from copper to a digital connection that runs over broadband. Openreach has confirmed it is retiring the analogue phone network by 31st January 2027, and that date applies in Leicester as everywhere else.
The change was originally due at the end of 2025, and was pushed back because vulnerable customers, including telecare users, were being migrated without proper checks. Openreach has since said there will be no cliff edge on 1 February 2027, which is reassuring for a phone call and less so for an unchecked alarm.
Households across LE1 to LE5 are contacted in batches by whoever bills them for the phone. The handset moves from the wall socket to the router, and anything else on that line has to be reconsidered. In Belgrave, Evington, Aylestone and Braunstone, where many older residents live alone, that quiet change is the whole issue.
Will my personal alarm still work after the switch-off?
Only if it does not depend on the analogue line. Older units make what is effectively a telephone call using analogue tones, and digital lines handle those tones inconsistently. Some units keep working, some drop calls, and some fail without any sign, so the pendant still lights up while nothing reaches an operator.
Alarms connecting over the mobile network are unaffected. Ours are of that type, monitored from our UK alarm receiving centre, where 99.6% of alarm calls are answered in under 60 seconds.
One safeguard is worth quoting to any provider who tries to rush you. The Telecare National Action Plan commits that "no telecare user will be migrated to digital landline services without the communication provider, the customer or the telecare service provider confirming that the user has a compatible and functioning telecare solution in place". That only bites if your phone company knows the alarm exists.
How do I check whether my alarm uses the phone line?
- Follow the cables. A cable going into a telephone socket, or into a socket on the back of a broadband router, means the alarm uses the fixed line.
- Look for mobile clues. A SIM tray, a short aerial or a label mentioning 4G points to a mobile connected unit the switchover will not touch.
- Ask during a test call. Press the pendant and ask the operator two questions: is this unit digital ready, and does it use the phone line or a mobile signal.
Our article on what happens if a telecare alarm stops working explains silent failure.
What about alarms provided by Leicester City Council?
Leicester City Council does provide telecare, but it does not present it under a single consumer brand name on its own website, so this page will not invent one. What is on the public record matters more. In June 2024 the council awarded a contract for what its procurement notice describes as "a digitally enabled Telecare Alarm Receiving Centre", covering roughly 4,500 registered users. The monitoring centre moved to digital ahead of the deadline, which is the harder half of the job.
What the council has not published is a page explaining the switchover to residents, or a timetable for replacing equipment in homes. If a council alarm is in the house, the route in is adult social care, via the council's independent living pages.
Outside the city the picture changes sharply. Leicestershire County Council does not run a lifeline service itself. Five district councils do, including Charnwood and Harborough, while the county states that residents in Blaby and in Oadby and Wigston should choose from "many local and national providers". A family in Knighton may have a council alarm while relatives in Oadby must arrange their own.
What should Leicester residents do now?
Work out which of three situations you are in. If the alarm came from Leicester City Council, ask adult social care whether your home unit, not just the monitoring centre, is digital ready. If it came from a district council such as Charnwood, contact that district. If bought privately, contact the company on the paperwork.
Whichever applies, tell your phone or broadband provider that a telecare alarm is in use at the address. That flag triggers extra care during migration, and it is free. Treat any caller offering a paid upgrade with suspicion.
The one thing to get right in Leicester
A digital monitoring centre does not make an old home unit digital. Leicester City Council has upgraded its alarm receiving centre, but the box on the sideboard in Rushey Mead or Saffron Lane is separate equipment with its own connection. Ask about the unit in the house, not the service as a whole.
Want a straight answer about your alarm?
Describe the base unit and we will tell you whether it survives the switch-off, and what a replacement involves.
Telephone 01704 332840 | info@holdengrange.com
Book a free call with HannahFrequently asked questions
Not a public one aimed at residents. Its procurement record shows a digitally enabled alarm receiving centre contracted in June 2024 for around 4,500 users, but no published page explains what happens to individual home units, or when. Adult social care is the team to ask.
Leicestershire County Council states that residents in Blaby and in Oadby and Wigston should choose from local and national providers, because those districts do not run a lifeline service. Any alarm already in place there almost certainly came from a private company, so that company must confirm it is digital ready.
No. A mobile connected alarm uses a SIM card, so it works in a house with no broadband and no landline at all. That matters in Leicester, where many older residents never took broadband and are now being moved to a digital phone service they did not ask for.
Digital landlines stop working in a power cut unless there is battery backup. Ofcom requires providers to give at least one hour of access to emergency services, free, to customers who depend on the landline for emergency calls. That protects the phone, not the alarm, which is why a mobile alarm with its own battery is safer.
Where to start: Check the back of the base unit for a telephone cable, tell your phone provider there is a telecare device at the address, and ask whoever supplied the alarm whether it is digital ready. See our digital switchover guide, our guide to digital ready SOS devices, or pendant alarms for Leicester. 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.