Copper's Last Winter: A Hull Home's Checklist Before the Landline Goes Digital

There's a particular noise a Hull hallway makes when the landline rings: half a ring, a clatter, then somebody shouting up the stairs. That noise is on borrowed time. The UK's copper telephone network is being retired in stages, and here in Hull that means KCOM — along with Connexin, MS3 and anyone else selling you a line — is steadily shifting households onto digital voice, where calls travel down your broadband instead of down a pair of copper wires that have been in the wall since before anyone in the house was born.

Most people won't notice much. A fair few will notice a lot. So here's the checklist we'd hand a neighbour over the back fence, before the letter lands on the doormat and the date is already set.

First, what's actually changing

On copper, your phone was powered by the line itself and the exchange did the thinking. On digital voice, your handset plugs into the router (or into a small adapter box sitting next to it) and your calls are just another stream of data. Same number, usually. Same handset, often. But the phone now leans on three things it never used to: your broadband, your router, and electricity in the house.

That's the whole shift in one sentence. Everything below is really just the consequences of it.

The stuff still clinging to the old line

Before you shrug and say nobody rings it anyway, have a proper walk round. In a typical HU postcode house you'll often find:

• a pendant or lifeline alarm for an older resident
• a monitored burglar alarm that dials out
• an answerphone that's been blinking since 2019
• a card machine in a back room or home salon
• a legacy TV box that still wants a phone socket
• an entry intercom or a lift phone in a small block of flats
• a fax machine. Yes, really. Usually in a shop.

None of these are dramatic. All of them are the sort of thing that quietly stops working and gets noticed two weeks later.

The care alarm question is the one that matters

If anyone in the house wears a pendant or has a lifeline unit on the hall table, deal with that first, before anything else on this list. Ring the provider — the council's telecare team, the housing association, or the private company on the sticker — and ask three things: is the unit digital-ready, who is responsible for swapping it, and how will it be tested once the line changes over?

Some older analogue units simply won't work over a digital line. Some will, but need a different connection. Either way, you want that conversation happening in October, not the week the engineer arrives. While you're at it, ask to be put on the provider's priority list for vulnerable customers. It exists, it costs nothing, and it matters if the line goes down.

Power cuts: the bit nobody reads in the leaflet

This is the difference that catches people out. A copper phone worked in a power cut because the exchange was still feeding the line. Digital voice doesn't do that. Router off, phone off — no dial tone at all, even if the handset is fully charged.

What to do about it:

• Keep one mobile fully charged and know where it is in the dark.
• Ask your provider whether they supply a battery backup unit for the router, and whether it's free or an add-on.
• If you're technically minded, a small UPS on the router buys you a couple of hours.
• If someone in the house relies on the phone for medical reasons, say so out loud to the provider. There are arrangements for exactly this.

The kit that lands in your hallway

Depending on who you're with, you'll get one of three setups: a router with a phone socket built in, a separate adapter box that the handset plugs into, or a cordless base station that connects to the router instead of the wall. Your existing number should port across, but confirm it in writing — especially if you're also changing broadband provider at the same time, which is when numbers tend to get lost in the shuffle.

Extension sockets: the terrace trap

This one bites older Hull housing especially hard. Plenty of Victorian and Edwardian terraces have two or three phone sockets daisy-chained round the house — hall, landing, back room — put in over decades by whoever had a drill that weekend.

Once the line goes digital, those sockets stop carrying calls. The phone has to live near the router. For most people the fix is a cordless set with two or three handsets, which covers the same ground without any rewiring. For a few — thick walls, big houses, a socket in a workshop at the bottom of the garden — it's a small job for someone with a van and a crimping tool. Either way, plan it now rather than discovering it on the day.

Answerphones, handsets and other small print

Most modern cordless phones handle digital voice without complaint. Very old answerphones sometimes don't, particularly the ones with a tiny cassette. Caller display may need switching on at the provider's end. And if you use any kind of dialler, alarm dialler or accessibility handset, check compatibility before the switch rather than after.

Six questions worth asking before you agree to anything

1. Is my line actually being moved, and on what date?
2. Does the adapter or new router arrive free of charge, or am I paying postage?
3. Can I keep my number, and what happens to it if I change provider later?
4. What happens to my care alarm or monitored alarm, and who tests it afterwards?
5. What's the plan for a power cut — do you provide backup, and what does it cost?
6. Is my broadband up to carrying calls as well as everything else, and what happens if the router fails?

Get the answers by email if you can. It's amazing how much clearer a call gets when it's written down.

If you run a shop

Card terminals on phone lines, back-office diallers, that one ancient till that talks to head office at midnight — all of it needs checking with the terminal provider, not with the person selling you broadband. Do it a month ahead. A card machine that stops taking payments on a Saturday morning is a much worse day than a slightly awkward phone call in advance.

A calm two-week plan

Week one: walk the house with a notepad, list every device plugged into a phone socket, ring the care alarm provider, ring your line provider, and get the switch date in writing. Week two: sort the handsets, plug everything in, make a test call to a friend, test the alarm, and pull the router plug for two minutes to see exactly what stops working. Better to find out on a Tuesday afternoon than during a storm.

The last word

The dial tone going quiet isn't a disaster. It's a change of plumbing, and like most plumbing it's fine as long as somebody checks it before the water's running. Do the walk-round, ask the awkward questions, and keep a charged mobile by the bed. That's most of it covered.