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

Analogue phone lines are retired on 31 January 2027 and every landline in Sheffield becomes digital. A pendant alarm plugged into the phone socket in Firth Park, Gleadless or Hillsborough may not be able to call for help afterwards. Sheffield's council alarm service has already moved most of its customers across, and the question is whether your relative is in the group left.

What is changing in Sheffield, and when?

Openreach is retiring the analogue telephone network by 31 January 2027. A home phone in Sheffield will then run over the broadband connection, with the handset plugged into the router rather than the wall socket. Numbers do not change and a normal call sounds no different.

Sheffield has been in this process longer than most places. The council has said BT began transferring its more vulnerable customers to digital services across Yorkshire and Humber from spring 2025, so plenty of local lines were converted more than a year ago. Openreach reported roughly 2.8 million lines still on the old network in February 2026.

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

Only if it is digital ready or works over the mobile network. An analogue base unit signals 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 other risk. A digital line depends on the broadband router, so it 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. Look at the back of the 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. Check the label. A council alarm in Sheffield is City Wide Care Alarms. Anything else will carry a company name and a customer number.
3. Make a test call. Press the button, say clearly that it is a test, and confirm the operator hears you and holds the right address and keyholders.

What about alarms provided by Sheffield City Council?

Sheffield runs its own service rather than buying one in. City Wide Care Alarms is Sheffield City Council's in-house telecare team, reachable on 0114 242 0351 between 9am and 5.30pm or at citywidecarealarms@sheffield.gov.uk. The published charge is £30.39 a month, which the council says covers installation, monitoring, support worker response and maintenance, with no VAT for customers who are chronically sick or disabled. You can apply online, ring the team, or be referred, and the council offers a no obligation visit to show the systems working.

On the switchover, Sheffield has said more than most councils. A council news item on technology to promote independence at home confirms that its Technology Enabled Care service is delivered by City Wide Care Alarms, that the service supports over 8,000 people, and that the UK analogue landline system moves to a digital platform by the end of January 2027. It also records that the team had already begun moving customers across, with fewer than a third still needing to switch.

Fewer than a third of 8,000 people is still a large number of Sheffield households. It is not a small tidy-up. If a relative in Woodseats or Darnall has an alarm from the council and has heard nothing, that silence is not proof they are done. Ring and ask.

What should Sheffield residents do now?

Ring the landline provider and tell them somebody relies on a personal alarm. That fact on the account triggers the national protections before an engineer converts the line, and it matters more here because Yorkshire migrations started early.

Then ring City Wide Care Alarms on 0114 242 0351 and ask whether that particular unit has been changed. If the alarm came from somewhere else, the supplier is the only organisation that can answer. A mobile connected alarm avoids the landline question altogether, which suits the flats and converted houses around Netherthorpe, Burngreave and Manor where broadband is often not in the resident's name. Any replacement should be 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, then ring City Wide Care Alarms on 0114 242 0351 and ask whether that address has been converted. See our SOS pendant alarms in Sheffield page, our digital switchover guide, or read what happens if a telecare alarm stops working. 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.