BT accused of 'bullying' customers over digital landline switch

BT has been accused of "bullying" customers by temporarily cutting off their broadband to pressure them to upgrade to a digital landline, as providers race to switch households over before the January deadline.

The allegation strikes at the heart of Britain's biggest telecoms transition in two decades. Companies are pushing to move households to "voice over internet protocol" (VoIP) services by the end of January, replacing the old copper network that has carried landline calls for generations.

The scale is enormous. Telecoms companies have so far migrated 16-17 million lines from the old copper network to digital VoIP, which uses a broadband connection instead of a traditional phone line, according to the report. That makes it the biggest technological upgrade since the early 2000s, when analogue TV was switched off.

The accusation of "bullying" centres on BT's tactic of temporarily pausing customers' broadband service. The approach, critics say, forces reluctant households to engage with the migration rather than leaving the decision to them. BT has not, according to the source material, disputed that it pauses broadband for some customers during the transition.

The deadline pressure explains the aggressive tactics. With the end-of-January cutoff looming, providers must move the remaining holdouts from copper to digital or risk leaving them without a working landline. VoIP requires a functioning broadband connection, so households without broadband — or with unreliable service — face a harder transition than the average customer.

The migration also carries practical stakes beyond convenience. Traditional copper landlines have worked during power cuts, because the network supplied its own power. VoIP handsets depend on home broadband and electricity, a shift that has raised concerns for vulnerable customers, such as the elderly, who rely on landlines as a lifeline.

The January deadline ends a transition that has been years in the making. The copper network BT has operated is being retired as part of the industry-wide move to full-fibre and digital services, a project telecoms executives have compared in scale to the digital TV switchover completed in 2012.

For BT, the accusations come at a delicate moment. The company must complete the migration on schedule while managing a customer base that includes millions of households yet to make the switch. Tactics that speed the transition — like pausing broadband — risk further damaging trust among exactly the customers BT needs to cooperate.

How BT responds to the "bullying" charge, and whether it softens its approach for the final wave of holdouts, will shape the final months of Britain's largest telecoms upgrade in a generation.