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

Analogue phone lines are retired on 31 January 2027 and every landline in Plymouth becomes digital. A pendant alarm plugged into the phone socket in Devonport, Efford or Plymstock may not be able to call for help afterwards. Plymouth City Council does not run its own alarm service, so nobody is going to ring you about it.

What is changing in Plymouth, and when?

Openreach is retiring the analogue telephone network by 31 January 2027. After that a home phone in Plymouth works through the broadband router rather than the socket on the wall. The number does not change and an ordinary call sounds the same, which is exactly why the change slips past people.

The equipment that shared the line is a different matter. Openreach reported roughly 2.8 million lines still on the old network in February 2026. In the terraces of Keyham and Mutley, and in the bungalows around Whitleigh and Ernesettle, a good number of those lines still have an alarm base unit plugged in beside the phone.

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

Only if it is digital ready or connects over the mobile network. An analogue base unit dials out using audio tones down a copper line, and digital lines do not carry those tones reliably. The Telecare National Action Plan from DHSC and DSIT commits that no telecare user will be migrated to a digital landline without the communications provider, the customer or the telecare provider confirming that a compatible and functioning telecare solution is in place.

Power cuts are the second risk. A digital line depends on the broadband router, which stops when the electricity does. Ofcom requires providers to give at least one hour of access to emergency organisations during a power cut, and says providers should offer battery backup free of charge to customers who depend on their landline to call the emergency services. That backup comes from the phone company and protects a 999 call, not the alarm.

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

1. Follow every cable out of the base unit. A thin lead into a white phone socket means analogue and at risk. A lead into the broadband router means it has already been converted. A power lead alone usually means a mobile unit.
2. Look for a company name. With no council service in Plymouth, the alarm almost certainly came from a private supplier. The name is usually on a sticker on the base unit or on the direct debit.
3. Press the button and say it is a test. Confirm the operator hears you, knows the address and holds the right keyholders. If nobody answers at all, that is your answer.

What about alarms provided by Plymouth City Council?

This is the honest part, and it matters more in Plymouth than in most cities. We could not verify a community alarm, careline or telecare monitoring service run by Plymouth City Council on the council's own website. The council's get adult care or support page routes people to a self-assessment or a professional referral rather than to an alarm service, and no council branded alarm appears there.

What the council does commission, with Livewell Southwest, is a community equipment service delivered by Millbrook Healthcare. That covers mobility and daily living aids. It is not an alarm monitoring service. The council's own Plymouth Online Directory lists personal alarms as something residents arrange with private providers.

Plymouth City Council has also not published guidance for residents on the analogue to digital switchover. That is not a criticism, and many councils are in the same position. It does have one practical consequence worth being blunt about. If your alarm did not come from a council, no council holds a record of it, so no council will write to you, ring you or send anybody round before January 2027. The only organisation that might is the company that sold it, and only if they still hold your details.

What should Plymouth residents do now?

Ring the landline provider and tell them somebody in the household relies on a personal alarm. That single fact on the account triggers the national protections before an engineer converts the line.

Then find out who supplies the alarm and ring them with one question: does this model work on a digital line. If a relative lives across the Tamar in Saltash or Torpoint, they are in Cornwall and under a different council entirely, so do not assume the same answer applies. A mobile connected alarm avoids the landline question altogether, which suits the many Plymouth flats and converted houses where the broadband is not in the resident's name. Any replacement should run on 4G, since 3G mobile networks are now switched off.

Frequently asked questions

Where to start: tell your phone company an alarm is in use, name the company that monitors it, and ask them whether that model works on a digital line. See our SOS pendant alarms in Plymouth page, our digital switchover guide, or read our guide to digital ready SOS devices. 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.