Writing into the Guardian newspaper, the friend wrote and revealed the elderly gentleman risks missing medical-related calls after EE warned he may have accept a new number to get his service back.

The Digital Voice switchover has cut off a 95-year-old’s landline, their friend has warning. Writing into the Guardian newspaper, the friend wrote and revealed the elderly gentleman risks missing medical-related calls after EE warned he may have accept a new number to get his service back.

They wrote: “My 95-year-old friend is in distress. His landline has stopped ­working and he’s been told by his provider EE that he may need to accept a new phone number to get his ­service back. He lives alone and relies on his phone for human contact. It will be a challenge for him to let ­people know his new number and he risks being cut off from medical communications.”

The Guardian’s consumer affairs team reported, after it stepped in: “The good news is his number has now been restored; the bad is that there will almost ­certainly be many more in his situation as Digital Voice ramps up.”

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“We’re extremely sorry that the customer’s experience has fallen short of the high expectation we set for all of our customers,” said a spokesperson for EE. “We have determined that his landline handsets are operational and will remain in contact until his complaint has been fully resolved.”

Replying, one reader fumed: “Why did an upgrade happen as part of a store visit? Presumably because the staff are there to sell things and have targets and get penalised or chastised for not reaching them. That said, telecare providers have had over a decade and advanced to sort this switchover out now. No excuse on their part but EE are a terrible company anyway.”

A second typed: “The usual auto text, copy and paste response then. Given that the government proclaimed it was on the side of hard working families (and others hopefully) perhaps they ought to explain why there is no Minister for Consumer Protection.

“The current post including consumer protection amongst a raft of other responsibilities – “Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Minister for Employment Rights, Competition and Markets) – Justin Madders MP”.””

Another said: “This is yet another area where the current government is going to get the blame for the inattention of the previous one. The change is sorely overdue but the requirement to fit a battery backup for free, for anyone who wants to retain the same level of service, has been weakened to the point it no longer exists.

“Most accounts probably don’t need or want the backup – the mobile is the primary phone for a large majority. I don’t think it is even possible to have your internal wiring connected to the Openreach modem these days and be functional. That needs correcting very quickly.”