Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps she is taking to ensure households without access to reliable broadband or mobile signal will be able to make calls following the digital switchover.

The Government is committed to ensuring that any risks from the industry-led migration of the copper based Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) are mitigated for everyone across the UK

In November 2024, the Government secured safeguards from the telecoms industry. These include the provision of free battery back-ups for vulnerable and landline dependent (including those without mobile signal) customers to ensure access to emergency services for at least one hour in a power outage. Many communication providers have gone further, providing battery back-ups of 4-7 hours.

In March 2026, the Government and industry agreed a new Fixed Telecoms Charter to extend these safeguards to all future fixed telecoms modernisation programmes.

In order to function correctly, VoIP requires a minimum connection speed of just 0.5 megabytes per second. It is possible to order a VoIP landline without purchasing a broadband connection.