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Broadband ISP and phone provider Virgin Media (O2) has today been hit with a £23.8 million fine by telecoms regulator Ofcom, which occurred after they were found to have “failed to protect vulnerable telecare customers” during their programme to migrate them from analogue phone services to IP-based digital landlines.
The regulator’s General Condition rules typically require every communications provider to “take all necessary measures to ensure … the fullest possible availability of the Public Electronic Communications Network and Publicly Available Telephone Services provided by them in the event of catastrophic network breakdown or in cases of force majeure; and uninterrupted access to Emergency Organisations” (police, fire, ambulance etc.).
Much of the industry is currently having to deal with the challenge of migrating old analogue based landline phone services to newer Internet Protocol (IP / VoIP) based digital phone services, which is a complicated process and one that does sometimes run into problems.
For example, over the past few years there had been a growing concern that this process was overlooking the needs of vulnerable customers, particularly those with telecare systems (c.1.8 million people) that hadn’t always been adapted to work with the new digital phone methods.
The above was mostly the fault of the telecare providers themselves for being slow to adapt, but internet providers also hold some responsibilities. General Condition C5.2 states that regulated companies “must establish, publish and comply with clear and effective policies and procedures for the fair and appropriate treatment of consumers whose circumstances may make them vulnerable“.
The good news is that all of the major players with legacy phone services that need migrating, particularly Openreach, BT, and Virgin Media, have since responded to those concerns and adopted a better approach alongside telecare providers (example). But prior to that, there was a period where the flaws in this process had yet to be fully patched, which is what Ofcom’s recent investigation into Virgin Media had focused upon.
In particular, Ofcom’s investigation was concerned with whether Virgin Media had been treating vulnerable consumers correctly and “ensuring uninterrupted access” to emergency services (here). The risks here were tragically underlined by the previously reported deaths of two “vulnerable” Virgin Media Phone customers (here). The provider is said to have first notified Ofcom about a number of serious incidents related to the migration of telecare customers in November and December 2023.
What did Ofcom find?
The regulator said their investigation uncovered “serious systemic failures” in Virgin Media’s migration process between August 2022 and December 2023, which ultimately meant they had failed to comply with their own policies and procedures for the fair and appropriate treatment of vulnerable consumers – and in doing so had broken Ofcom’s consumer protection rules.
Virgin Media’s Key Failings
1. Virgin Media failed properly to identify and record the status of telecare customers, resulting in significant gaps in the screening process. This meant that those affected did not receive the appropriate level of tailored support through the migration process.
2. Virgin Media’s approach to disconnecting telecare customers who did not engage in the migration process, despite being reasonably aware of the risks posed, put thousands of vulnerable customers at a direct risk of harm and prevented their devices from connecting to alarm monitoring centres while the disconnection was in place.
As a result of Virgin Media’s “serious failures“, Ofcom has fined the company £23,800,000, which will be passed on to HM Treasury (the provider has been given four weeks to pay). This figure includes a 30% discount as a result of Virgin Media’s admission of liability and its completion of the regulator’s settlement process.
In setting the penalty amount, Ofcom took into consideration that Virgin Media had self-reported the issue; the vulnerability of the customers affected; the significant duration of the contraventions; the seriousness of the breach; and the “significant degree of potential harm caused“.
Ian Strawhorne, Ofcom’s Director of Enforcement, said:
“It’s unacceptable that vulnerable customers were put at direct risk of harm and left without appropriate support by Virgin Media, during what should have been a safe and straightforward upgrade to their landline services. Today’s fine makes clear to companies that, if they fail to protect their vulnerable customers, they can expect to face similar enforcement action.”
As stated earlier, Virgin Media has since taken significant steps to remedy the issues. Following a pause on migrations in December 2023, the provider updated its policies and procedures and introduced a number of further safeguards.
The remedies Virgin Media has put in place include:
➤ Conducting manual reviews of customer service records to further identify Telecare Customers and incorporating this into operational best practice for the remainder of Virgin Media’s digital phone switchover;
➤ Conducting an assurance campaign, contacting 42,991 identified Telecare Customers to support them in migration;
➤ Developing a new engagement plan for Telecare users, which includes keeping non-engaging Telecare users in a continuous loop of engagement rather than disconnecting them; and
➤ Working with local authorities to establish an “end of process” for Telecare customers who have not engaged by the time Virgin Media decommissions the analogue network.
➤ Signatory to the UK Government’s, Public Switched Telephone Network charter, (18 December 2023), including the PSTN non-voluntary migration checklist (18 November 2024).
