Powys landline switch‑off raises safety fears for vulnerable residents
Council and emergency services warn that the analogue landline phase‑out could leave medically dependent households without contact during power cuts.
Powys County Council’s plan to switch off analogue landlines by January 2027 has sparked alarm among residents who rely on medical equipment at home, fearing a loss of emergency contact when power cuts strike.
County councillor Danny Bebb, who uses a CPAP machine for sleep apnoea, highlighted recent outages in Churchstoke as a warning sign.
He told the council that he currently receives outage updates from utility companies via his landline, a service that will soon disappear.
“The concern is not one of convenience but of public safety,” he said. “In some rural communities, a single weather‑related incident can result in the simultaneous loss of electricity, broadband and mobile communications.”
Powys’s head of planning and regulatory services, Gwilym Davies, confirmed that all households will eventually need to migrate from analogue to digital voice services.
“Traditional landline will cease to exist, and all residents will need to migrate to either digital provision based on broadband or to mobile telephony,” he said. “All these devices would benefit from additional power supply during a power cut.”
Digital phone services, unlike their analogue predecessors, depend on powered equipment inside homes, meaning a blackout could render them inoperable without backup power.
Davies added that the council expects residents to install battery packs or uninterruptible power supplies to keep phones and internet routers running.
Utility companies operating in Powys maintain Priority Services Registers, identifying customers who depend on life‑supporting devices such as ventilators or dialysis machines.
In major incidents, the council can activate a “vulnerable people cell” to coordinate assistance for those at greatest risk.
Energy firms have previously deployed mobile service teams to affected villages, setting up community hubs where residents can charge phones and obtain refreshments.
These hubs, however, are temporary solutions and may not be reachable if severe weather also disrupts road access.
Davies acknowledged that telecommunications providers share limited information locally about network resilience during large‑scale outages.
He warned that digital services could fail if the home’s backup power is insufficient, leaving patients without a way to call for help.
The council’s emergency plans include the possibility of relocating patients to medical accommodation if power loss threatens their treatment.
Local health boards are being urged to review equipment battery life and to advise vulnerable households on securing reliable power sources.
As the analogue switch‑off deadline approaches, residents are being encouraged to assess their backup arrangements and to register with the Priority Services Register if they have not already done so.
Failure to adapt could leave some of Powys’s most isolated communities without any means of contacting emergency services during a simultaneous loss of electricity, broadband and mobile coverage.