BT Digital Voice & Power Outage

As BT continue to roll out ‘Digital Voice’ across the UK, there will be an increase in questions regarding what happens when there is a power outage in case of an emergency. There is some information from Carolyn Otley, Cumbria Community Resilience Co-ordinator which you may find useful.

‘BT Digital Voice & power outage has come up lots over the last few years – and Cumbria LRF has raised it nationally/regionally as an issue which will often be more significant in the rural areas.

Nationally, the assumption is that the vast majority of power cuts are very short, and a battery back-up which lasts a few hours (combined with a mobile phone signal) will be adequate.

It’s what caused many of the issues in Storm Arwen – some areas, including Coniston, have already been switched to digital lines – meaning they couldn’t report their loss of power (as mobile coverage soon went down, too).

This article from Age UK has a bit more info than the standard BT text – including what people might need to check about alarm systems of various kinds that are connected to their phone line’:

Changes to landline telephones | Age UK

Suggesting people build it into community emergency plans is a useful step’.