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Working Paper 5: On hold: the Analogue-to-Digital Switchover and telecare

Publication details A Working Paper examines concerns around the Analogue-to-Digital Switchover, and confusion and subsequent attempts at clarifying lines of responsibility between national and local government, and telecare and telecommunications providers – and importantly the creation of various mechanisms to operationalise these responsibilities. It explores what has, this far, been a ‘bumpy road’, and suggests that it remains to be seen whether new plans can overcome more fundamental hurdles in the analogue-to-digital transition.

To cite: Hamblin, K. and Whitfield, G. (2025). On hold: the Analogue-to-Digital Switchover and telecare. Centre for Care Working Paper 5, CIRCLE, Sheffield: University of Sheffield

ISBN 978-1-8382688-5-5

©The authors and CIRCLE, The University of Sheffield, May 2025

Summary

A change is happening to the communication infrastructure in the UK as the landline telephone network is being migrated from analogue to digital. Technology-enabled care (TEC), or telecare devices and services have relied on analogue telecommunications networks to send signals from devices in people’s homes to Alarm Receiving Centres, which in turn contact unpaid carers, or formal response or emergency services. Now, with infrastructure being ‘switched over’ to digital, this process will change, with new risks introduced. The switchover was initially announced in 2017 with a planned end-date of 2025. It has since been extended to 2027 following mounting concerns about the impact on ‘vulnerable’ users of telecare. This Working Paper examines these concerns, and confusion and subsequent attempts at clarifying lines of responsibility between national and local government, and telecare and telecommunications providers – and importantly the creation of various mechanisms to operationalise these responsibilities. It explores what has, this far, been a ‘bumpy road’, and suggests that it remains to be seen whether new plans can overcome more fundamental hurdles in the analogue-to-digital transition.