How to be ready for the digital switchover and protect yourself from scams
What is the digital switchover?
The UK’s telephone network is changing. Between now and 2025 most telephone providers will be moving their customers from old analogue landlines over to new upgraded landline services using digital technology. The new network will provide a future proof, more reliable and dependable broadband service that will support the UK for decades to come.
This means services that rely on the old landline system such as home phones and healthcare devices will be switched over.
Why is it happening?
The PSTN is a privately-owned analogue telecoms network and the decision to upgrade it has been taken by the telecommunications industry. Fixed-line operators - such as Openreach, BT and Virgin Media O2 - will replace analogue telephone services with Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology, which carries voice calls as data using internet technology. The upgrade will be delivered by the telecoms industry in a phased approach over the next couple of years, with the UK network expected to be fully upgraded to VoIP services in 2025. The switchover will happen on a telephone exchange by exchange basis and not on a regional basis seen in relation to the switchover of analogue television.
The transition from analogue to digital technologies has created new opportunities for criminals to target vulnerable residents. For example, criminals may use phishing emails, fake websites, or phone calls to trick residents into providing personal information, such as bank account details or passwords.
This information can then be used to steal money or commit identity theft. There is also the potential for increases in criminality through rogue traders selling equipment, charging for unnecessary work, or trying to pressurise vulnerable members of the community into new contracts related to the digital switchover.
Around 1.8 million people use health care devices nationally, and we are concerned that reports of scams will increase as the 2025 switchover date approaches.
For more information see leaflet here.
