Digital Voice switchover cut off my 95-year-old friend’s landline

He risks missing medical-related calls after EE warned he may have accept a new number to get his service back. My 95-year-old friend is in distress. His landline has stopped ­working and he’s been told by his provider EE that he may need to accept a new phone number to get his ­service back.

He lives alone and relies on his phone for human contact. It will be a challenge for him to let ­people know his new number and he risks being cut off from medical communications. SP, London. It sounded to me as though your friend had unwittingly had his phone line switched to Digital Voice. This enormous project is transferring the analogue network to an internet-based service before the old copper network is switched off in January 2027.

The switchover has grave implications for vulnerable customers as digital lines do not work during power outages and may be incompatible with vital telecare buttons. Some customers have reported that lifelong phone numbers have been lost in the process.

Telecoms firms agreed to delay transferring the most vulnerable until they were certain those customers would not be negatively affected. However, it turns out that your friend was indeed transferred without his knowledge after he visited an EE shop for help with his mobile phone. It seems a ­salesperson signed him up to a new contract without taking into account his circumstances.

Two weeks later he returned from respite care to discover that his devices were no longer working. His telecare button may also have been affected, but he has not yet had to use it. Moreover, the equipment has been installed downstairs in the hall, which makes it hard for him to hear the phone ring and impossible to reach in time from his upstairs ­sitting room.

Soon after you contacted me, he was admitted to hospital with chest pains, attributed in part to the distress of the saga. The good news is his number has now been restored; the bad is that there will almost ­certainly be many more in his situation as Digital Voice ramps up.

EE told me it’s investigating why a visit to a store resulted in the switchover. “We’re extremely sorry that the customer’s experience has fallen short of the high expectation we set for all of our customers,” said a spokesperson. “We have determined that his landline handsets are operational and will remain in contact until his complaint has been fully resolved.”.

Customers whose lost telecoms service is not restored within two working days are entitled to compensation from their provider under rules by the regulator Ofcom. Email your.problems@observer.co.uk. Include an address and phone number. Submission and publication are subject to our terms and conditions.