Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the resumption by BT of the rollout of Digital Voice, what assessment they have made of the needs of residents without an adequate electricity supply.

The Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) is privately-owned and the decision to upgrade it has been taken independently by the telecoms industry. However, the government and Ofcom are working together to ensure consumers and sectors are protected and prepared for the migration to Voice-over-internet Protocol (VoIP).

All Communications Providers have obligations under the Communications Act 2003, implemented under Condition A3 of Ofcom’s General Conditions of Entitlement (available on their website), to provide a Public Emergency Call Service for the numbers 999 and 112 in the UK. Ofcom places a regulatory obligation on Communications Providers to take all necessary measures to ensure uninterrupted access to emergency organisations for their customers, and these obligations will continue post migration.

Ofcom has issued guidance on how telecoms companies can fulfil their regulatory obligation to ensure that VoIP customers have continued access to the emergency services in the event of a power outage. The guidance states that at least one solution must be available for a minimum of one hour that enables access to emergency organisations in the event of a power cut. Any solution must be made available free of charge to customers who providers determine are reliant on their landline to make emergency calls during a power cut. These are minimum standards, and in practice many providers are offering solutions which exceed them.

The Government has asked Ofcom to review how all communications providers are meeting the needs of their customers by fulfilling their obligations during power outages, because it falls within Ofcom’s remit to determine the terms of its General Conditions as an independent regulator.