Ofcom has fined Virgin Media £23.8 million after it disconnected telecare customers during its programme to migrate customers from a copper-based traditional phone network to digital landlines.

Migration of customers with telecare alarms must be undertaken with appropriate care and tailored support, as any disruption to their device’s connection could have material impacts on their safety.

Virgin Media notified Ofcom about a number of serious incidents related to the migration of telecare customers in November and December 2023. Its subsequent investigation ‘uncovered serious systemic failures in Virgin Media’s migration process’.

Virgin Media failed properly to identify and record the status of telecare customers, it said, with many affected customers not receiving the appropriate level of tailored support through the migration process.

It also found that Virgin Media’s approach to disconnecting Telecare customers who did not engage in the migration process, despite being aware of the risks posed, ‘put thousands of vulnerable customers at a direct risk of harm and prevented their devices from connecting to alarm monitoring centres while the disconnection was in place’.