Virgin Media fined £23.8m by Ofcom over telecare migration failures

Virgin Media has been hit with a £23.8 million fine by Ofcom after an investigation found it failed to protect vulnerable telecare customers during its programme to migrate landline users from analogue to digital services.

The regulator said the company disconnected thousands of customers who relied on telecare alarms, leaving some unable to connect to monitoring centres and placing them at “direct risk of harm”.

The penalty follows a series of  incidents reported by Virgin Media to Ofcom in November and December 2023, during the transition away from the ageing public switched telephone network.

Ofcom has warned that the migration must be handled with care for vulnerable customers  especially those using telecare devices, where any loss of connectivity could have serious safety implications.

It was these safeguards that Ofcom concluded Virgin Media had failed to put in place effectively.

Serious systemic failures

Ofcom’s investigation found “serious systemic failures” in Virgin Media’s migration process between August 2022 and December 2023.

According to the regulator, the operator failed properly to identify and record which customers were dependent on telecare services, leading to large gaps in its screening process. As a result, affected customers did not receive the tailored support required during the upgrade.

More seriously, Ofcom found that Virgin Media disconnected telecare customers who did not engage with the migration process, despite being aware of the risks. During these periods of disconnection, telecare devices were unable to connect to alarm monitoring centres, leaving vulnerable users without a vital safety net.

Ofcom concluded that Virgin Media failed to comply with its own internal policies for the fair treatment of vulnerable consumers – in breach of the regulator’s consumer protection rules under General Condition C5.2.

Penalty, paid to the Treasury

The £23.8 million fine will be paid within four weeks and passed on to HM Treasury. Ofcom said the size of the penalty reflected the vulnerability of the affected customers, the length of time over which the failures occurred, and the seriousness of the potential harm caused.

The amount also includes a 30 per cent reduction, after Virgin Media admitted its failings, entered into Ofcom’s settlement process and cooperated fully with the investigation.

Ian Strawhorne, Ofcom’s Director of Enforcement, said the case should serve as a warning to the industry.

“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, “Today’s fine makes clear to companies that, if they fail to protect their vulnerable customers, they can expect to face similar enforcement action.”

Safeguards

Virgin Media paused its migration of telecare customers in December 2023 and has since introduced a range of additional safeguards to prevent a repeat of the issues.

These include manual reviews of customer service records to better identify telecare users, alongside an assurance campaign that contacted nearly 43,000 identified telecare customers to support them through the migration process.

The operator has also developed a new engagement plan designed to keep non-responsive telecare customers in a continuous cycle of contact, rather than disconnecting them. In parallel, it is working with local authorities to establish a clear “end of process” for telecare users who remain unengaged when the analogue network is finally decommissioned.

Virgin Media is also a signatory to the UK Government’s PSTN Charter and the associated non-voluntary migration checklist, which set out expectations for protecting vulnerable customers during the digital switchover.

For the wider industry, the ruling underlines the regulatory risk of getting the PSTN transition wrong – and reinforces Ofcom’s message that modernisation cannot come at the expense of customer safety.