Gov Asks UK Broadband ISPs to Offer 8 Hours of Battery Backup

The UK Government’s Minister for Telecoms, Sir Chris Bryant, has written a new letter to the bosses of major broadband ISPs that calls on them to help protect vulnerable users during the switchover from analogue (PSTN) to digital (IP) phone solutions by refraining from re-starting non-voluntary migrations and offering battery backup that can last “up to” 8 hours.

The shift to digital phones is an industry, not government, led programme that is partly driven by the looming retirement of copper lines in favour of full fibre (FTTP). Not to mention that modern mobile and Internet Protocol (IP)-based communication services have largely taken over from traditional home phones, and it’s become harder to find parts for the old network.

NOTE: As part of this Openreach are withdrawing their old Wholesale Line Rental (WLR) products, while BT are retiring their related Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN).

Just to recap. The plan to switch-off older phone lines was recently delayed by BT to 31st January 2027 in order to give internet and phone providers, as well as telecare providers and consumers more time to adapt (details). But the main focus of this delay was on the 1.8 million people who use vital home telecare systems in the UK (e.g. elderly, disabled, and vulnerable people), which often aren’t compatible with the replacement VoIP / IP-based digital phone services (i.e. for everybody else the deadline is still technically Dec 2025).

One of the other challenges with modern digital phone lines is that they can’t be remotely powered from the exchange (e.g. electricity can’t flow down optical fibre cables, like it could with copper), which means that vulnerable users often need some degree of battery backup within their homes to help keep the service in operation during a power outage.

Ofcom’s current minimum requirement is that such backup systems, when supplied to vulnerable users, must be able to power the above kit for “at least an hour” if there’s a power cut. Suffice to say that longer outages, which are more likely to occur in rural areas, can be problematic.

However, Sir Chris Bryant’s new letter – as seen by ISPreview, which was addressed to Ofcom, TechUK and the bosses of TalkTalk, BT (EE), Openreach, KCOM, Vodafone, Virgin Media (O2), Zen Internet, Sky Broadband and INCA, has just encouraged internet and phone providers to propose a “clear plan for moving to best-in-class battery backup solutions, lasting up to eight hours.”

Sir Chris Bryant said:

“Finally, we discussed the battery back-up solutions you provide to vulnerable customers. I appreciate the levels of collaboration that you are all showing on this, but across the industry there is still a large difference in service provided, ranging from sixty minutes of power resilience to up to eight hours.

I am particularly concerned by this as customers in rural areas without good mobile signal are also the most likely to suffer long power outages. Therefore I would like you all to write to me by the end of September with a clear plan for moving to best-in-class battery backup solutions, lasting up to eight hours.”

The big obstacle here is likely to be one of cost (battery backup options). For example, BT and EE currently offer an inclusive Battery Backup Unit (BBU) to very vulnerable customers, but for everybody else who wants one they’ll charge you £85. BT plans to launch an Advanced Battery Backup Unit (ABBU) “later this year“, which they claim will be able to “last for the full duration of most power outages“ (here), but it’s unclear if this will stretch to 8 hours.

However, it hopefully goes without saying that a BBU capable of lasting 8 hours is likely to be very expensive (hundreds of pounds), which creates a risk that more providers (particularly smaller players) may see this as an incentive NOT to offer any digital phone services to vulnerable users (some already seem to take this approach).

The focus above is clearly on the end-user (service) side, rather than the network side, although the two are ultimately linked. Ofcom recently explored (here and here) whether to require fixed broadband providers to ensure their active street cabinets could support a 4-hour power backup (many already can). But in the end they acknowledged that this would be a very costly upgrade and instead adopted a softer recommendation that encouraged “power backup of approximately four hours to be good practice” (here).

Clearly Ofcom’s approach does not directly seem to align with the Government’s call for backup solutions that can last “up to 8 hours“, but then the term “up to” is one that could be considered widely open to interpretation. Ofcom are separately still consulting on the issue of introducing 1 hour of battery backup for mobile (radio) sites, but so far, they seem to have rejected that idea as being too expensive.

In addition, it’s worth pointing out that BT and Openreach are currently testing an additional (SOTAP for Analogue) phone line product that does NOT require a broadband connection to function, is powered (no need for battery backup) and will be targeted at vulnerable and edge use cases (inc. CNI) users – those with old analogue phone lines who would otherwise “face challenges” in migrating to IP based voice solutions by 2025. The solution, once introduced, would not be available for new service provisions (only existing customers) and is intended to be a temporary product (possibly running until around 2030).

Finally, Sir Chris Bryant’s letter also touched on the issue of non-voluntary migrations. Under the existing charter that was established to help protect vulnerable home phone users (here), both the Government and ISPs agreed “to not forcibly move customers onto the new [digital phone] network unless they are fully confident they will be protected.” The charter also pledged that no telecare users would be migrated to digital landline services without the provider, customer, or telecare company first confirming they have a compatible and functioning telecare solution in place.

Sir Chris Bryant said:

I also look forward to seeing the launch of the industry-funded national comms campaign aimed at encouraging telecare users (and their carers) to register their needs. For those using Openreach networks, I am interested in updates on progress of the media gateway product and the “prove telecare” trial process.

Because there is more to do, I am asking you to refrain from re-starting non-voluntary migrations for the rest of this calendar year. Safety must be our top priority, and I want to test that we have done all we can to avoid anyone further coming to harm as a result of this process.

Within this, I am content with non-voluntary migrations that specifically target users that haven’t used their landline in more than 12 months, as was previously the case. These customers are not ‘landline-users’ by common understanding. I urge you to take all possible steps to exclude any telecare users from being migrated via this route.

This change is somewhat less contentious than the proposed battery backup one above and isn’t likely to draw much disagreement. We should add that Virgin Media has also recently established a new agreement with TSA, the telecare advisory body, to enhance the support provided to telecare users as the UK transitions to Digital Voice (here) – this is roughly similar to Openreach’s Prove Telecare trial.

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