BT cut broadband for customers ignoring its landline switch. Over 80% then signed up.
BT temporarily paused broadband for a small group of customers who had not answered two years of messages about the end of copper landlines, the Guardian reported on 3 October.
They got five days' notice. Their landline and mobile service stayed on, and telecare devices kept working.
More than 80% of those customers then took the steps needed to switch, according to the Guardian. BT has not said how many people were paused.
"The temporary broadband pause we have introduced for this small minority is intended to help prevent a complete loss of service when the old, analogue network is retired," a BT spokesperson said. Dennis Reed, founder of the campaign group Silver Voices, told the Guardian he was getting "increasing evidence that there is some bullying behaviour going on".
Openreach, BT's network arm, says about 1.3 million copper lines are still to move, and the old network retires at the end of January. From 4 October to 31 January that is roughly 11,000 lines a day. The date was moved from December 2025 after problems with vulnerable customers.
What finally moved the last users in your company's biggest migration?
Sources
Our file on BT
All 3 BT storiesFor your next steering committee
- 1Ask which design decisions in your programme would be expensive to reverse, and when each was last reviewed.
- 2Ask which expected benefits change if the implementation approach changes.
- 3Ask who owns a decision to change course, and where it would be recorded.
Issue 01 of the ERP LEADERS brief puts a timeline, the three-number review and six questions on one page. Read issue 01
Welcome back. · Issue 01
