The Digital Switchover in Luton: What It Means for Your Personal Alarm
Britain's analogue phone network is switched off on 31 January 2027. Personal alarms that dial out through a phone socket are the devices most likely to be caught out. Luton Borough Council operates its own alarm and telecare service, Assistive Technology Services, though it is easier to find through the service's own website than through the council's social care pages.
Key facts
- The analogue phone network (PSTN) is retired on 31 January 2027.
- Luton Borough Council is the unitary authority for the town and operates Assistive Technology Services (ATS).
- The town covers LU1 to LU4. LU5, LU6 and LU7 reach Houghton Regis, Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard, which are Central Bedfordshire, not Luton.
- Around 2 million people in the UK use telecare, according to the government's Telecare National Action Plan.
What is changing in Luton, and when?
Every landline in the country is moving off the copper network onto a digital connection carried over broadband. Openreach has confirmed it is retiring the analogue phone network by 31 January 2027.
Households are converted in batches, so a street in Leagrave may go months before one in Stopsley. When it happens, the telephone plugs into the router rather than the wall socket. For most people that is the end of it. For anyone with a pendant alarm, a fall detector or a smoke sensor linked to a monitoring centre, it is the point at which something needs to have been checked in advance.
Will my personal alarm still work after the switch-off?
Only if it does not depend on the analogue line. An older alarm dials the monitoring centre using analogue tones that digital lines carry unreliably. Some units keep working, some drop the call, and some fail silently while the pendant still lights up as normal. Silent failure is the one that matters, because nobody discovers it until the day it is needed.
An alarm that connects over the mobile network is unaffected, because it uses its own SIM and never touches the phone line. Ours work that way, monitored from our own UK alarm receiving centre, where 99.6% of alarm calls are answered in under 60 seconds.
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 helps if your phone company knows an alarm exists at the address.
How do I check whether my alarm uses the phone line?
- Follow the cables. A thin cable from the base unit into a telephone socket, or into the back of a router, means the alarm is on the fixed line.
- Look for a SIM or aerial. A SIM tray, a short aerial or a 4G label means the unit is mobile connected.
- Ask on a test call. Press the pendant and ask the operator whether that unit is digital ready.
See also our guide to whether an alarm needs WiFi or a landline.
What about alarms provided by Luton Borough Council?
Luton runs something slightly unusual. Its alarm and sensor service is Assistive Technology Services, which states on its own website that it is "Operated by Luton Borough Council" and helps "people in Bedfordshire and the surrounding areas". Enquiries go to 01582 720703 or ats@luton.gov.uk, and the team is based at the Kingsway Depot in Luton. It offers emergency pendants, falls and safety sensors, installation and 24 hour monitoring, and takes referrals from health and care professionals as well as directly from families. Luton's own adult social care guidance describes ATS as a service founded by the council with the ambition to serve the whole of the UK, which is why you may come across it operating outside the borough.
The honest part. As at August 2026, Luton Borough Council has not published a page explaining what the digital switchover means for its telecare users, and there is no public timetable for replacing home equipment. The council's main adult social care pages do not mention alarms at all, which is why many residents never find the service until a social worker mentions it. None of that means nothing is happening, but it does mean the responsibility for asking sits with you. Ring ATS and ask two specific questions: is the base unit in this house digital, and if not, when is it due to be swapped.
If the address is in Dunstable, Houghton Regis or Leighton Buzzard, Luton Borough Council is not your authority even though the postcode starts LU. Those areas are Central Bedfordshire, which arranges its own services.
What should Luton residents do now?
Identify the supplier of the alarm. If it came through Luton Borough Council, contact ATS directly on 01582 720703. If it was arranged privately, or came with sheltered housing, contact that provider or landlord.
Then tell whoever bills you for the phone line that a telecare alarm is in use. Ofcom expects providers to protect customers during the migration to digital landlines, and being on record as a telecare household is what activates that care. It costs nothing and takes one call.
The one thing to get right in Luton
Do not wait to be contacted. Luton has published no switchover timetable for telecare users, so there may be no letter to wait for. The people who get caught out are almost always the ones who assumed somebody official was already tracking their alarm.
Want to know if your alarm survives 2027?
Describe the base unit to us and we will tell you plainly, with no obligation and no sales pressure.
Telephone 01704 332840 | info@holdengrange.com
Book a free call with HannahFrequently asked questions
Assistive Technology Services, which its website states is operated by Luton Borough Council. The team is based at the Kingsway Depot and can be reached on 01582 720703 or ats@luton.gov.uk. It supplies pendants, sensors and monitoring, and takes referrals from professionals as well as enquiries from families directly.
Not publicly, as at August 2026. There is no council page explaining what happens to telecare equipment before the deadline, and no timetable for replacing home units. If a council alarm is in use, ring the service and ask about your specific equipment rather than waiting for a letter.
No. Those towns share LU postcodes with Luton but sit in Central Bedfordshire, which runs its own arrangements. It is a common source of confusion for families whose relatives live a couple of miles apart on either side of the boundary. A privately supplied digital alarm works across both areas.
A digital landline stops working without battery backup. Ofcom requires providers to offer at least one hour of access to emergency services, free, to customers who depend on the landline for emergency calls. That covers the telephone rather than the alarm, so an alarm with its own battery is the safer arrangement.
Where to start: Look behind the alarm for a phone cable, ring ATS on 01582 720703 if it is a council unit, and tell your phone provider about the alarm either way. See our digital switchover guide or pendant alarms for Luton. 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.