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

On 31 January 2027 the analogue phone network is retired and every landline in Sunderland becomes digital. Personal alarms that dial out through the phone socket can quietly lose the ability to call for help. Sunderland City Council has published switchover advice, and its central instruction is a single free phone call.

What is changing in Sunderland, and when?

Openreach is retiring the analogue telephone network by 31 January 2027. A Sunderland landline will then run over the broadband connection: the handset goes into the router instead of the wall socket, and the phone number is unchanged.

Sunderland City Council's switchover page notes that BT scheduled the North East for summer 2025 and that the deadline was extended to 2027 for vulnerable residents. The national deadline is 31 January 2027 for everyone, not only for people flagged as vulnerable, and Openreach has said there will be no cliff edge the following day. If you have not been moved yet, you will be.

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

An analogue alarm might not, and it is the one to deal with. These units reach the monitoring centre by sending audio tones down a copper pair, and digital lines do not always carry those tones cleanly. The failure gives no warning. The base unit still lights up and the problem only appears the first time somebody presses the button in a real emergency.

The Telecare National Action Plan is the national protection. It 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. It only helps if the phone company knows an alarm is in the house, which is exactly why the council's advice starts with a phone call.

Then there is power. Digital lines carry no power of their own and stop working in a power cut. Ofcom requires providers to give at least one hour of access to emergency organisations during an outage and to offer free battery backup to people who rely on the landline for 999. That covers emergency calls, not telecare equipment.

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

1. Look at what it is plugged into. A thin lead into a white phone socket means an analogue alarm. A lead into the broadband router means it has already been converted. Only a power lead usually means a mobile unit.
2. Work out who answers it. There should be a name and number on the base. In Sunderland that is often Sunderland Care and Support, sometimes Gentoo or another housing provider, sometimes a private company.
3. Ring in a test. Press the button, say clearly it is a test, and check the operator can hear you and has the right address and keyholders. Repeat after any change to the phone or broadband.

What about alarms provided by Sunderland City Council?

Sunderland City Council does not run telecare directly. Its alarms page describes a Telecare Response Service run by the Assistive Technology Team at Sunderland Care and Support. That organisation was set up by the council as a Local Authority Trading Company in December 2013, with the council as its only shareholder, so it is the council's own service in a separate wrapper. The number is 0191 520 5000, and a social worker will tell you whether you qualify for help with the charge.

Sunderland Care and Support has acknowledged publicly that the move from analogue to digital is a challenge for telecare services that rely on the old network, and has warned about fraudsters using the switchover to extract payments for equipment. What neither the council nor the company has published is a household level timetable saying when a particular Wearside alarm will be swapped. If a council arranged alarm is in the house, ring 0191 520 5000 and ask what your unit is and when it changes.

What should Sunderland residents do now?

Do what the council asks first. Dial 150 from the landline, or use the number on the bill, and tell your provider that a personal alarm or healthcare device is in use. That registers the household for extra support before the line is switched, and it is free.

Then sort the alarm out. Council arranged alarms go through Sunderland Care and Support. A privately bought alarm should be treated as needing replacement until the supplier confirms otherwise in writing. A mobile connected alarm removes the landline question completely, which helps in the older streets of Southwick and Millfield and equally out at Washington and Penshaw. Choose 4G, since 3G is already switched off.

Frequently asked questions

Where to start: dial 150 and register the alarm with your phone provider, ring 0191 520 5000 if the council arranged it, then plan a digital ready replacement if it was bought privately. See SOS pendant alarms in Sunderland, our digital switchover guide, or read about the 2027 landline switch-off. The council's own advice is on its digital switchover page. 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.