Millions of people face losing their landline phone in three months as part of the UK-wide digital switchover, with one campaign group saying that “lives will be lost” if the Government doesn’t push telecommunications firms to delay the transition.
The warning comes as the country prepares to retire its old copper-wire cables and complete the switch to an internet-based network by early 2027.
BT-owned Openreach, which operates the UK’s largest landline network, said roughly one million households and businesses across the country are yet to upgrade as the deadline approaches.
Five teenagers stabbed at Halloween party – what we know
Five teenagers have been seriously injured after being stabbed at a Halloween party in Hampshire, police have said.
The force has appealed for witnesses and anyone with information to come forward.
What we know so far
- Officers were called to Park Road in Chandler’s Ford, near Eastleigh, shortly after 10.30pm on Saturday.
- Hampshire Police said it believes an unknown group gained entry to a party before the stabbings.
- An eyewitness told the BBC they saw someone running out of the house shouting he had been stabbed, and that he was being chased by two people.
- The injured teens – three boys aged 16 and two aged 17 – were taken to hospital.
- Another eyewitness said ambulances and an air ambulance had attended.
- A police cordon remained in place on Sunday while officers continued their investigation.
My thoughts are with the parents of the boys, the boys and the whole community.
Senior investigating officer Det Ch Insp Elizabeth Pirie acknowledged the impact on local residents.
Eastleigh MP Liz Jarvis told the BBC: “The community is in shock this morning that such an awful thing could have occurred.”
A closer look at the detail
- Two churches in the area have opened their doors to offer support.
- Jarvis urged people to not “share information online” and “let the police do their job”.
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Virgin Media O2 plans major job cuts – what we know
Virgin Media O2 is set to cull thousands of jobs as the telecoms giant attempts to plug billions of pounds of debt and navigate a market with increasingly cheaper rivals.
Here is everything we know so far.
Mounting debt and competition
Virgin Media O2’s total debt stands at £27.2bn, according to its latest accounts.
The broadband provider is also tackling competition from smaller, cheaper providers like Hyperoptic, Community Fibre, Gigaclear and YouFibre, as well as behemoths like BT.
BT recently inked a deal to buy rival TalkTalk, which Virgin Media O2 has firmly opposed.
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Senior leadership changes under way
Virgin Media O2 has not finalised the number of roles to be cut, but it is likely to be a large chunk of its 16,000-strong workforce, the BBC reported.
The majority of the affected roles are not customer-facing and a number of senior leadership changes are already under way.
Virgin Media O2 is also expected to review its use of contractors and suppliers alongside the job cuts.
Union working to ‘mitigate number of redundancies’
Disappointing and very unsettling.
Virgin Media O2 declined to comment. The Prospect union, which represents staff, called the cuts “disappointing and very unsettling”.
Prospect’s Noel McClean said the union was “working with employers to explore ways to mitigate the number of redundancies”.
How varying your bedtime could be bad for your heart
Varying your bedtime – including staying up late on weekends or doing shift work – could be bad for your heart and increase the risk of strokes, according to new research.
Sleep experts also found that varying the length of sleep too much – like having a long lie-in or pulling an all-nighter, may also have poor health outcomes.
Increased risk of heart problems
The study looked at several factors: how many hours a person slept each night, how much of the night was spent in light, deep and REM sleep, as well as how long a person was awake after first falling asleep.
- Researchers also looked at whether sleep duration, bedtime and wake-up time changed from night to night over roughly six months, as well as the usual times a person fell asleep and woke up.
- The number of “sleep cycles” completed each night were also examined.
- The results showed changes in sleep timing from night to night were linked to a 20 to 23 per cent higher risk of a heart attack, stroke and heart failure.
While we often focus on getting a full eight hours of sleep every night, having a regular sleep schedule – consistent , wake times, and sleep duration from night to night – is a practical, actionable step anyone can take that may help protect their heart and blood vessels.
Dr Nguyen Minh Tuan Viet, a neuroscientist and Lead researcher ON THE STUDY
A closer look at the study
Researchers analysed sleep data from more than 10,000 adults as part of the National Institutes of Health’s All of Us research programme in the US.
Participants, who had an average age of 53 and had no signs of a heart or metabolic disease, wore sleep tracking devices for around six months.
They were then followed for almost four years to see if they suffered heart issues.
The effects
- 1Every 29-minute increase in sleep from night to night was also linked with a 29 per cent higher risk of having a disease of the heart muscle, which leaves the heart unable to pump enough blood through the body, and a 20 per cent higher risk of heart failure.
- 2Meanwhile, having a greater number of complete “sleep cycles” each night led to a 28 per cent lower risk of atrial arrhythmia, a common type of irregular heartbeat.
- 3In contrast, sleeping longer than usual was linked to a 55 per cent higher risk of heart attack or stroke.
Could the UK see a serious bird flu outbreak?
In the western US state, mink raised for their fur are dying from bird flu.
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Pandemic potential
While scientists have long recognised the pandemic potential of bird flu, the presence in minks takes the threat status to the next level, says Professor Wendy Barclay, a virologist at Imperial College London.
“This creates an even higher risk to humans than before,” she said.
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How the virus could evolve
Minks’ nose and lungs are similar to humans’ – so much so that closely related ferrets are used in research instead of people.
While for most people, flu is relatively mild, the infection causes a surge of deaths every winter.
And every so often, the virus undergoes some major genetic changes leading to a higher toll, which gets called a pandemic flu.
Not easily spread
Bird flu has occasionally spread to poultry farms, as well as some dairy farms in the US. So far, there have been a small number of farm workers who have caught bird flu from animals and died.
Because the virus is adapted to birds, this strain of flu does not seem to spread easily from person to person. But previous research suggests that one genetic change to strains found on US dairy farms could improve transmission to humans.
Autumn outbreak is a red flag
Another worry is that the mink could be perfect incubators, allowing different flu strains to swap genes. Called reassortment, this process is known to have triggered previous human pandemics, including the one in 2009.
Mink can harbour both human and bird flu strains. The fact this mink outbreak is happening in autumn, when human seasonal flu rises, is also a red flag, says Dr Simon Williams, a public health researcher at Swansea University.
He said: “It increases the risk of a virus with pandemic potential reassorting in somebody working on that farm who has seasonal flu.”
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Flu pandemic preparations
- The UK Health Security Agency declined to comment on whether it had taken any specific measures in response to the mink outbreak when asked by The i Paper.
- But the agency’s Dr Richard Puleston said it “stands ready to initiate an appropriate public health response” if needed.
- As of 2025, the NHS fortunately had £25m worth of PPE stockpiled following the Covid-19 pandemic. Rapid diagnostic tests also shouldn’t be overlooked in terms of the UK’s ability to combat an outbreak.
Customers who do not make the switch in time may lose connection or be moved on to a temporary emergency phone service that does not have features such as voicemail, three-way calling or call diversion.
Who will be left vulnerable by the landline cut-off?
Unlike digital services, the traditional landline network does not rely on mains electricity and continues to work in a power cut. But the Government and operators say the move to digital landlines will offer a more reliable service, better-quality calls and improved blocking of unwanted calls.
The people most impacted by the switchover will be the elderly, those who lack digital skills and those in remote rural areas.
Research from Age UK in March found that nearly 60 per cent of adults over the age of 50 were unaware of the switchover, with around one in two older adults digitally excluded.
MPs raised concerns last week that the switch could leave the elderly and people living in remote areas unable to contact emergency services, particularly during storms. reported earlier this year that a couple in their seventies were unable to call for an ambulance after a stroke as their landline was cut off and their digital line was unusable due to an upgrading error.
Ofcom has said it expects minimal disruption for most people. A spokesperson for the regulator said it was monitoring the process closely and had already fined one firm for “putting vulnerable customers at unacceptable risk of harm” during the changeover.
What is happening to the old phone lines?
Landline operators are switching home phones across the country to internet-based connections instead of copper-wire cables. The Government says the transition is necessary due to the declining reliability of the cables.
James Lilley, Openreach’s director of customer migrations, told that tens of thousands of customers were switching each week, but it was difficult to get customers to respond to letters about the change due to a rise in scams.
Although the deadline is nearing, Lilley said there would not be a day when customers suddenly lose access to services: “There is no big red button that will switch everyone off on 31 Jan.”
Telecoms companies, including BT, have been giving free back-up battery packs to vulnerable customers, which can keep landlines operating for an hour or more.
But Labour MP Torcuil Crichton, who represents the Western Isles constituency of Na h-Eileanan an Iar, told the House of Commons last week that this was “simply not adequate” and that telecoms providers “simply don’t have the means to maintain or keep their signal going during storms”.
He called for telecoms firms to “up their digital game” to protect places “on the edge where people are vulnerable, isolated from their neighbours, where the ambulance is an hour away and the storm is 70 miles per hour”.
When will the lines be switched off?
Openreach is phasing out the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), a system in place since the 1870s, with the shutdown planned for 31 January, 2027.
The initial deadline was 31 December, 2025, but this was extended after worries about rural households and vulnerable customers who rely on telecare alarms.
Under the PSTN Charter, providers said they will not migrate customers using telecare devices unless their equipment is confirmed to be compatible with digital lines.
But campaigners are calling for another extension to ensure elderly and vulnerable customers are better prepared. They also slammed the tactics used by telecoms companies to get customers to make the switch.
Last month, BT was accused of “bullying” customers to switch to digital by temporarily cutting off their broadband. A small group of customers were given five days’ notice of the planned outage to encourage them to contact BT and take action to avoid the “pause” in broadband service, reported.
Dennis Reed, director of Silver Voices, told The i Paper that telecoms companies are “resorting to desperate tactics because they realise that they have no chance of meeting the January deadline”.
“Unless the Government acts now to call off their bully boy tactics to force vulnerable customers to switch to inferior and unreliable digital landlines, lives will be lost because of the Government’s indolent attitude.
“With such current emphasis on national security and resilience it is bonkers to be dispensing with a tried and trusted alternative to internet-based telephony.”
The Government was contacted for comment.
How can I avoid being cut off?
Make sure to inform your phone company about these devices and if you are a vulnerable customer.
You may also be entitled to a free battery pack if you rely on a landline and do not have good mobile signal.