WEBVTT

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We're in the final year of the landline switch
over, where by January 2027, the old network needs

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to be switched off, and what we need to do
is ensure that our vulnerable customers

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and telecare customers are supported through
this transition to digital services. 

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At BT we've been working very closely with local
authorities, charities, community partners,

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but most importantly telecare providers, to help
us identify telecare users across the country.

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A couple of years ago when me wife had an accident,
then I realised that because of what happened,

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and I couldn't get in touch with anybody else,
and she was sitting there lying there crying out,

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the only person that I could do is get on to
the telecare service, and I had a person on the end

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of that phone. I said my wife fell down the stairs
and I feel like she's broke her leg. Okay we get

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the ambulance round within a certain period of time. It's
great that Openreach now have a proved telecare

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process to be able to support customers. They'll
do the migration and switch them to digital voice.

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They will test anything that needs testing
and if there are any issues, they will revert

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the customer back to the analogue landline. The key
thing is we will never leave a customer without a

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working service. Service providers are contacting
customers and notifying them that we'll be out to

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upgrade them to the new digital service. It's
really important when people get contacted that

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they respond to it, and understand that it's not
a bad thing upgrading their service. 

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And straight away you look at it and you think digital
service and everything. It all sounds very good.

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Made the phone call and low and behold it's
worked. I mean the guy walked in, he knew what

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to do and he was explaining a bit of what it
was all about. With BT's digital voice service,

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you'll get the same price, same number, over 99%
of phones are actually compatible. For our most

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vulnerable teleare customers, we provide a free
engineer who is teleare trained. And actually,

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this engineer will connect a battery backup unit
which we provide for any power cuts that may occur.