Almost 2,000 people have now signed the petition - thank you and thank you for sharing your reasons for signing. They are incredibly powerful.

Maxine signed the petition saying "We have digital phones now. During the recent storms we lost all power and mobile for 7 days. If this had been last year, my husband may have died as he had a heart attack and required immediate medical response which I could not have called for without a 15 minute drive to get signal"

If you have no power, you have no broadband, so after 2025 you will have no 'landline'. You may also have no mobile signal if masts are down and then no way of calling for help.

Ofcom's solution - providers giving people back up batteries (that last about an hour) or mobile phones (and you may not even have 2G in a power outage) - is not fit for purpose in many rural areas.

Rural areas are not the same as urban areas - we have hills blocking signals, we have more trees to crash down on power lines, we may not have neighbours or medical services nearby. We need solutions that work for us, that saves lives in times of emergency - not just ones that tick urban designed boxes. One hat does not fit all.

Please make your voice of concern heard by sharing across social media/emails/texts and alerting friends and family who may not be aware of what is coming down THEIR line. Thank you.