Lodestar does not provide emergency backup.

Lodestar Voice is a standalone over-the-top SIP service. Calls to 999 and 112 will cost £0.00 when the service, your equipment, your power and your internet connection are all working. Lodestar will not provide a backup route when any of them is unavailable.

A SIP service, not a landline replacement

An old analogue phone received power from the telephone exchange through the same copper wires that carried the call. A suitable corded phone could keep working during a power cut.

Lodestar Voice will provide the SIP service, a phone number and online call features over an internet connection you arrange. Lodestar will not supply or control your broadband, router, optical network terminal, electricity or phone equipment. The service is not sold as a fixed landline replacement or as a resilient emergency telephone service.

The connections needed to make a call

Old analogue line

Power at the telephone exchange
Copper pair carrying power and the call
Corded analogue phone

Lodestar Voice

Electricity at the premises
Power to the optical network terminal, when one is used
Power to the router
A working broadband connection
Power to the handset, DECT base or adapter
Power and service at the street cabinet or exchange

What happens in a power cut

Without backup power, the internet equipment and phone equipment will go off. No call can then be made through Lodestar Voice, including a call to 999 or 112.

No emergency backup is included. Lodestar will not supply, install, monitor, maintain or replace a UPS, battery, generator or other source of backup power. The examples below are arrangements a customer may choose and maintain independently.

Customer option: use an uninterruptible power supply

Choose a unit for the measured power draw of the complete setup and the running time the household needs. The VA figure alone does not guarantee a particular runtime.

Every item needed to make the internet connection work must be connected to the UPS. Powering only the phone will not keep the service working.

Actual running time depends on the equipment, battery age and battery condition. Test the complete setup rather than relying on the figure printed on the box.

Customer option: keep a charged mobile phone

Keep a charged mobile phone in a place everyone in the household knows. Check that it has reception where it will be used and that the people who may need it know how to call 999 or 112.

Charge it regularly and make an occasional test call to a non-emergency number. Do not make a test call to 999 or 112.

What happens if broadband fails

A broadband fault has the same effect as a power cut. The Lodestar Voice line cannot make or receive calls while the connection is down, including calls to 999 and 112.

Arrange your own second route

Lodestar does not supply backup internet or mobile fallback with Voice. You may use a mobile phone, tethering or a separate connection, but you must arrange, test and maintain it yourself.

Keep an independent way to call for help

You are responsible for keeping another reliable way to call emergency services, such as a charged mobile phone with reception or a separate working telephone service. Lodestar does not provide, monitor or guarantee that alternative.

Do not make this your only emergency route

If you would have no other reliable way to call 999 or 112 during a power cut, internet fault, equipment failure or Lodestar outage, do not rely on Lodestar Voice as your only phone service.

Keep the emergency address correct

Lodestar will use the registered address to help provide caller-location information to emergency services where technically feasible. If the phone moves to a different address, you must tell Lodestar and wait for confirmation that the address has been updated.

Tell the emergency call handler your actual location, especially if the phone has moved or an address update is still pending.