I’ll start with some reassuring news… we’ve talked a couple of times in the past about how BT are planning to scrap the current system that they use for landline phones. Originally, the plan was to have made the switch by the end of 2025, but recently they’ve extended the deadline to January 2027.
You can read more about what’s happening and how it might affect you in Julie’s previous newsletter on the subject, but in short, they’re introducing a new digital system where the calls are made over the internet rather than the old analogue phone lines. The concern is that this will affect people’s emergency fall alarms, which are connected to the analogue landlines so they can call for an ambulance if the wearer suffers a fall or other medical emergency.
So this extra time will hopefully give the people who make these fall alarms enough time to upgrade the technology so that it works with the new landline system.
I also wanted to highlight some important dates that are approaching, given that the general election has been announced for the 4th July. I mentioned a couple of months ago that to vote in person, you need to take some form of photo ID with you, and that if you don’t have any valid photo ID, you have a few different options which you can look into here.
I also mentioned the option of a postal vote, which you can read more about here.
With the election approaching, here are some key dates for you to add to your diary:
If you haven’t registered to vote yet, you need to do so by the 18th June.
If you want to vote by post, you need to apply by the 19th June.
If you don’t have photo ID and are going to apply for a Voter Authority Certificate instead, you need to do so by the 26th June.
So my top tip for this week is going to be how to set yourself a reminder on your smartphone for any of these dates that might be relevant to you.
Here’s how to do it:
- Open the Calendar app on your phone
- Look for a “+” symbol somewhere on the screen and tap on that.
- You might be asked to choose either a Task or an Event – I’d go with an Event, personally.
- Give it a title e.g. “Register to vote” by typing in the first box.
- Tap on the date underneath (it’ll usually start with today’s date) and choose the date that you need from the mini-calendar that appears. Swipe from right to left on it to move to the next month.
- Swipe up on the “Add event” box until you can see either the word “Alert”, “Alarm” or a little bell icon. Tap on that, or on “Add notification” to choose when you’d like to be reminded. For something like this, I’d probably go for the day before to give myself plenty of time.
- Tap on “Save” or “Add” in the top right to save it.