Voice over Internet Protocol: Rural Areas
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment the Government has made of the public safety risks associated with the migration from analogue landlines to Digital Voice in rural areas with poor mobile coverage and frequent prolonged power outages.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan
The Government is committed to ensuring that any risks from the industry-led migration of the analogue Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) to digital Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) are mitigated for everyone across the UK, including in rural areas. Communications providers are under legal obligations to ensure uninterrupted access to emergency services, including 999 and 112, and to take appropriate and proportionate steps to identify risks to network resilience and mitigate service disruption.
In November 2024, the Government secured additional safeguards from the telecoms industry. These include the provision of free battery back-ups for vulnerable and landline dependent customers (including those with poor mobile coverage) to ensure access to emergency services go beyond 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.
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