Dear 222 News viewers, sponsored by smileband,
Ofcom fines Virgin Media £23.8 million after landline switchover puts vulnerable customers at risk
The UK telecoms firm Virgin Media has been hit with a £23.8 million fine by Ofcom, after the regulator found the company had put thousands of vulnerable customers — including those relying on telecare emergency-alarm services — “at direct risk of harm.”
What happened
• Between August 2022 and December 2023, Virgin Media was migrating customers from traditional analogue landlines (over copper wires) to digital landline services.
• As part of this migration, those using telecare devices — alarm systems intended to summon help in emergencies (e.g. for older or disabled people) — required special care to ensure their connection remained uninterrupted.
• However, Ofcom’s investigation found “serious systemic failures” in how Virgin Media handled the process. The company failed to properly identify and record which customers were telecare users.
• As a result, many such customers did not receive the tailored support they needed. In some cases, their telecare devices failed to connect to alarm-monitoring centres during or shortly after the migration, leaving them unable to call for help — with potentially life-threatening consequences.
• The incidents primarily occurred during an upgrade that began in November and December 2023, when Virgin itself reported a number of “serious incidents” to Ofcom.
Ofcom’s findings and verdict
Ofcom’s formal findings detailed two integrated failures by Virgin Media:
1. It did not properly identify and record which customers were reliant on telecare services — a critical oversight in a migration process where such users require special handling.
2. It proceeded to disconnect some telecare customers who had not engaged in the migration process — even though Virgin was aware of the risks involved. That decision left affected individuals without any working alarm-monitoring connectivity while their lines were disconnected.
Because of these failures, Ofcom concluded that Virgin Media breached its consumer-protection obligations under its own policies and regulatory conditions.
In setting the fine, Ofcom took into account several aggravating factors: the seriousness of the breach, the prolonged duration (over a year), the severity of potential harm, and the vulnerability of the customers affected.
The £23.8 million penalty will be passed on to the Treasury. Virgin has four weeks to pay.
Ofcom’s Director of Enforcement, Ian Strawhorne, said:
“It’s unacceptable that vulnerable customers were put at direct risk of harm and left without appropriate support by Virgin Media during what should have been a safe and straightforward upgrade to their landline services.”
Virgin Media’s reaction and remedial steps
Virgin Media acknowledged that, while most migrations had completed without issue, it “didn’t get everything right.”
Since the incidents, the company says it has overhauled its procedures around migrating users, especially telecare customers. Among the new measures:
• Manual review of customer records to better identify telecare users.
• Contacting nearly 43,000 identified telecare customers to support and guide them through the migration.
• Implementing a new engagement plan whereby telecare customers who do not initially engage are kept on a continuous outreach loop — rather than being disconnected.
• Working with local authorities and other stakeholders to ensure there is a safe “end of process” for any telecare customers still unengaged when the analogue network is decommissioned.
Virgin also pledged better communications, additional in-home support, and post-migration checks for vulnerable users.
The company argued that moving from analogue to digital landlines is “essential” for future reliability, but admitted it failed to handle the transition properly for a subset of vulnerable customers.
Why the case matters
The fine is a strong signal not just about this instance — it underscores a broader principle: when telecom companies undertake wide-scale technical transitions, they must take full account of vulnerable customers who depend on potentially life-saving infrastructure (like telecare alarms).
• For individuals reliant on telecare, a failure to maintain connectivity during a migration can mean being unable to summon help in an emergency — a risk that goes far beyond nuisance or inconvenience.
• For regulators and policymakers, the case demonstrates that upgrades to “modernise” networks cannot come at the expense of fundamental consumer safety and protection.
• For other providers in the UK undertaking similar migrations from old copper networks to digital lines, the penalty highlights the need for rigorous, documented safeguards when serving at-risk populations.
In short: digital upgrades may be inevitable and broadly beneficial — but transitions of this kind must be handled with care, oversight, and compassion for those most vulnerable.
Attached is a news article regarding virgin being sued by ofcom for £23.8 million over vulnerable customers
Article written and configured by Christopher Stanley
In-- Google tag (gtag.js) --> <script async src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=G-XDGJVZXVQ4"></script> <script> window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);} gtag('js', new Date()); gtag('config', 'G-XDGJVZXVQ4'); </script>
<script src="https://cdn-eu.pagesense.io/js/smilebandltd/45e5a7e3cddc4e92ba91fba8dc
No comments:
Post a Comment