The Digital Switchover in Stoke-on-Trent: What It Means for Your Personal Alarm

The analogue phone network switches off on 31 January 2027 and every landline across the six towns goes digital. A Lifeline pendant that dials out through the phone socket can stop reaching help. Stoke-on-Trent City Council has published switchover advice for Lifeline users, and it asks for one specific thing most councils forget.

What is changing in Stoke-on-Trent, and when?

Openreach is retiring the analogue telephone network by 31 January 2027. From then, a Potteries landline runs over the broadband line, the handset plugs into the router rather than the wall socket, and the number stays the same.

The city council's own digital switchover page says the upgrade "will begin from April 2023 and aims to be completed by the end of 2026". That end date has since moved. The industry deadline is now 31 January 2027, and Openreach has said there will be no cliff edge the following day, with any remaining lines moving to alternative arrangements. If you are working from an older council leaflet, use the 2027 date.

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

An analogue alarm is the one at risk. These units call the monitoring centre using audio tones sent down a copper pair, and a digital line does not always carry those tones cleanly. Nothing visible changes when it goes wrong. The light on the base unit stays on and the fault only shows up when somebody actually needs help.

The national safeguard is the Telecare National Action Plan, which 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 telecare solution is in place. It relies on the phone company being told there is an alarm in the house.

Power matters too. Digital lines carry no power of their own, so they stop in a power cut. Ofcom requires providers to give at least one hour of access to emergency organisations during an outage and to offer battery backup free of charge to people who depend on the landline to call 999. That protects 999 calls rather than telecare equipment.

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

1. Follow the wire. Into a white phone socket means an analogue unit and action needed. Into the broadband router means it has already been converted. Only a power lead usually means a mobile unit.
2. Check who answers. Look for a name and number on the base of the unit. In Stoke that is usually the council's Lifeline service, sometimes a housing provider, sometimes a private company.
3. Make a test call. Press the button, say it is a test, and check the operator hears you and holds the right address and keyholders. Do this again straight after any engineer visit.

What about alarms provided by Stoke-on-Trent City Council?

The council runs a Lifeline community alarm and Telecare service. Lifeline is the pendant and base unit, Telecare adds sensors such as fall detectors, flood sensors and medication reminders, and an Emergency Response Service sends a trained team out to people who have fallen. You can arrange a Lifeline demonstration and installation directly on 01782 234545 without going through social care. If you want the wider sensor package, the assessment line is 0800 561 0015, and the council is clear that it will not assess only for telecare: it will look at all your social care needs.

Stoke is one of the better councils on switchover advice. Its digital switchover page tells Lifeline users to notify their telephone company about the alarm, to ask for a battery back-up unit, and to make sure the visiting engineer knows about the Lifeline unit. The part most people miss is the last instruction: confirm that a successful alarm test call has taken place after the upgrade. The council also warns about people posing as new providers and asking for bank details, and points residents to Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040.

What should Stoke-on-Trent residents do now?

Tell your phone company that a personal alarm is in use and ask to be logged as dependent on the line. Then follow the council's own instruction and do not let an engineer leave without a successful test call from the alarm.

If the alarm came from anywhere other than the council, treat it as unproven until the supplier confirms in writing that it works on a digital line. A mobile connected alarm removes the question completely, which is worth knowing in the older terraced streets of Burslem and Longton as much as on the newer estates at Trentham and Blurton. Choose 4G, because 3G has already been switched off nationally.

Frequently asked questions

Where to start: tell your phone company an alarm is in use, ring the Lifeline team on 01782 234545 if the council supplied it, and insist on a test call after any engineer visit. See SOS pendant alarms in Stoke-on-Trent, 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.