Digital Switchover Advice Please?

[Sweechgate]

Hi, Just a bit of advice and head scratching please.

I am out of my 4x (65+ fibre) contracts and now face expensive renewals, Alternatively I can move to a Digital service from PlusNet at £24.99 p/m for a 65+ digital line minus 3x £1.25 per self referral, all deducted from my main account so I only have to pay £21.24  p/m. after a discount of £3.75 p/m, and by default ALL will be Anytime Calls for free. However, My real concerns are

1> I have 3  Lines with Telecare devices which must be upgraded to Battery Backups, I was told by the Service Providers that my ISP would be responsible for supplying these batteries? Is that correct?

2> If their BB goes down, Those disabled 80/90 years old relatives are expected to use a mobile to call for help or report the problem! No Chance!  But what if they do fall and are in pain?

3> Both O2 or Vodafone signal is weak (No EE or 3) and that is another problem.

4> I was told conflicting details about keeping the old phone number? I want to keep all 4.

5> Do ISP's have to respond to 'Disabled' issues as a priority? What is the normal SLA fix?

Ideally I would be happy to stay with TT even if it can only partially compete (I am not asking for a price match), But if I am forced to leave financially due to an estimated £3.6K for 4 Contracts with double increases at way over 3.9% each year... Its no Joke!, then I would appreciate any firsthand feedback especially about the Telecare and digital issues to watch out for... 

Thank you.

[Sweechgate]

Thank you, I was aware of that but others will find it also very helpful to know. 👍

However, since I expect OpenReach will be (?) managing the maintenance, I did wonder if they had a priority procedure , but that is only a side issue here because I am really more interested in feedback from Telecare users experience who went digital and might have encountered s temporary service loss.

[Sweechgate]

I am old and wise enough not to waste my time with career politicians and appointed quango heads, I might as well be doing something wet against the wind.

The fact remains that with all their might and wisdom, they couldn't see the clear obvious implication of this rushed upgrade... At the very least they could have built into the system a backup plan so that every disabled Telecare user would have access to a FREE dedicated SIM option built in the hub which only kicks in if the BB has dropped. That way Telecare would still function, and the Monitoring Service can still dial in to speak to the Client who activated the emergency help... And that is how it works now so they can phone an Ambulance or Fire or Police. That SIM should work regardless of the Carrier, and would ideally hook up to the strongest mobile signal.

Anyway, setting all aside, Renewing with TT now will not fix the problem, Just delay it a little at a hefty price.

[Gliwmaeden2]

@Sweechgate, ISPs can only respond to "disabled issues" if the particular individuals have registered special accessibility needs with the ISP.

They are not otherwise prioritised, so definitely worth setting up asap.

Read this, and associated links:

https://community.talktalk.co.uk/t5/TalkTalk-Accessibility/ct-p/talktalk-accessibility

[ferguson]

Hey, I am not here to convince you of anything. I agree with your concerns. It is the powers that be who need to realise and recognise that a robust system needs to be in place when the digital switchover takes place. Perhaps you may do better to raise this with the likes of your MP, Ofcom etc?

[Sweechgate]

I have three old relatives (90, 88, 87) living 20 miles apart, all with different needs but all rely on  Telecare devices (Pendant) which each has had to use about 5/6 times in the last 3 years. They all have mobility problems and in two cases need daily home care, So pressing a button on a pendant is their only lifeline but this will not be enough in the future, and certainly would have been a disaster 2 weeks ago when one of them fell and had to go to hospital by Ambulance due to suspected heart complications.

Apart from the uncertainty and worry for myself and family, A Broadband Outage that day would have led to Certain Death.

I strongly disagree that the TeleCare should respond to the infrastructure changes because it is a Life & Death Service and there is no way you can convince me that the final Digital Infrastructure service will be resilient 24/7/365 ... That will NEVER happen!

[ferguson]

Why do you have 4x fibre contracts? As to the future with VoIP and personal care systems it is far from clear. I think the latter may have to respond to the main infrastructure changes.