Cumbria analogue phase-out ‘would be curtains for me’ in a crisis

People in rural parts of Cumbria have said they will be left unable to call for help in an emergency when analogue phones are phased out.

Old-fashioned phones still work in a power cut via an electric current from the telephone exchange.

Alice Bondi, from Alston Moor, said it would be “curtains” for her if she had no analogue phone and she was unable to drive in a crisis.

Phone companies such as BT say they are making the change because the old copper network is increasingly prone to faults and digital phones are more reliable. A BT spokesperson encouraged customers to get in touch to discuss a “solution”.

The industry is aiming to switch almost all customers to digital landlines, which use the internet, by the end of January 2027.

Ms Bondi, who lives a mile from the nearest property, has an analogue phone for emergencies.

She said power cuts could last up to four days in her area and added local mobile phone coverage usually failed when outages occurred.

Asked what she would do without the analogue phone in a crisis, she said, “Who knows?”

“If the emergency meant that I wasn’t able to drive, that really would be curtains for me,” she said.

The Labour MP for Penrith and Solway Markus Campbell-Savours has called for a delay to the switchover.

He said: “I want to know, is there some way we can give those people who are vulnerable a piece of kit where they can raise alarm?”

Phone companies have offered battery packs to vulnerable customers to use as a temporary power source, but they last for hours rather than days.

A spokesperson for BT said the move to digital landlines was “necessary” because the analogue network had become “increasingly prone to faults and is no longer fit for purpose”.

They added: “We encourage customers who have any concerns to get in touch. There is a solution for everyone.”