BT digital landline: It tried to make me upgrade and pay £85 when I asked for emergency backup

I recently received a letter from BT saying my landline phone was being switched to Digital Voice.

As part of this, it said I would be upgraded to full fibre broadband at no extra cost.

Digital Voice will not work in a power cut, but apparently I cannot refuse to have it.

I am elderly and disabled and find using a mobile phone quite difficult, especially in the darkness of a power cut.

I also wear a medical pendant, which has a button I would press to call 999 if something happened to me. This is linked to the phone, so when I switch to Digital Voice it won’t work if there is no power.

I contacted BT via online chat and asked for a back-up battery, which would allow the phone to keep working in a power cut.

The BT staff ignored what I had asked for and instead tried to get me to upgrade to a more expensive broadband package, even though it should have been free. They said I could only get the backup battery if I agreed to this.

After an hour and 12 minutes, I finally managed to order the back-up battery, but it cost me £85.

I want to highlight this as I am concerned other vulnerable customers are being treated in the same way, and some of them will not be aware. S.B, Surrey

Helen Crane of This is Money replies: Digital landlines, which are being adopted by all phone companies, have proved highly controversial.

BT announced this week that it will push back its deadline for switching all its customers to an internet-enabled phone from December 2025 until January 2027, and other firms are expected to follow.

The decision was made due to concerns that elderly and vulnerable customers like you, who rely most on their landlines, had not been given enough time to adapt.

BT, which also runs EE, also wants to wait for the companies that manufacture medical pendants to update their technology so that it works with digital phones, and get the data sharing permissions needed to make the system function. 

Your experience with BT happened just before this deadline was extended, and I think it proves that giving it some more time was the right decision.

Update needed: Most medical emergency button devices don’t work with digital phones

Customers going digital have been offered free upgrades to stronger and faster internet connections, to ensure the phone works as well as possible.

So it was worrying to hear that BT staff tried to pressure you in to a more expensive package. They also charged you £85 for the backup battery.

You would be paying more money, to switch to a service you never asked for or wanted and that would be less reliable. It doesn’t sound like a great deal.

You sent me some screen shots from your online chat with BT, and I agree that the agents were pushy and did not listen to what you were asking them for.

You explained your issue with the medical pendant, and in response they offered you an upgrade from your old copper wire connection to full fibre, ultra fast broadband and a ‘new smart hub 2’ device for £2 extra per month, which would have taken your monthly bill from £37.99 to £39.99.

It is a small amount of money, but the principle that they are selling upgrades to worried older people when they get in touch to make sure they will still be looked after in an emergency is wrong.

You were clear: ‘I don’t want an upgrade. I just want a back-up battery’.

But the agent persisted, and also tried to sell you a new calls package for £12 per month.

You asked to be transferred to a manager, who said that you could only get a back-up battery if you took the full fibre upgrade.

They said: ‘We do not have the option to place order [sic] for backup unit on normal fibre accounts, backup unit can only be sent if you upgrade to full fibre.’

When you explained that was not what your letter from BT had said, they finally relented and said they could order it as ‘an exception’ – though you would still have to pay £85.

The fact they made that exception shows the requirement for full fibre is not a technical necessity for the unit to work – but rather that BT did not want to send them out for those on less expensive packages.

Given your reason for needing one – which could be a matter of life and death – I don’t think that is at all acceptable.

I contacted BT to ask why this happened, and what its policy really is on sending out the backup units.

Delay: BT now has until January 2027 to switch all of its customers to digital landlines

It said that, following the change in deadline, vulnerable customers and those with additional needs would now not be transferred to Digital Voice until spring 2025 at the earliest.

This, it said, would allow it to make the necessary data sharing agreements with local authorities and other companies which provide medical pendants, so that they would still work in their time of need.

I hope that gives BT a chance to iron these issues out and make sure people are able to get the equipment that they need to stay safe – without being flogged unnecessary upgrades on the way.

However, campaign group Silver Voices told MailOnline this 13-month extension is nothing more than a ‘token concession’.

In line with the extension, BT has now postponed your switchover to Digital Voice.

It is also reviewing your chat conversations and says it will take on board any learnings. It is also refunding you in BT credit for the £85 you spent on the backup battery.

Although you will have to make the transition to digital eventually, by the time you do the technology used in your medical pendant will hopefully have caught up.

A BT spokesman said: ‘We’re very sorry that [S.B’s] experience has fallen below the high standard we strive to always provide our customers. 

‘We have contacted her to discuss her complaint and noted on her account that she has a healthcare pendant. 

‘[The customer’s] switch to Digital Voice has been postponed because of this, and we have credited her with the cost of the battery back-up unit. We’ve now resolved her complaint and she is happy for it to be closed’.