"There was no way of getting hold of anybody," says 74-year-old Jim Bownass, who lives in the small village of Crosthwaite, near Kendal, in the Lake District.

When Storm Arwen took out his electricity on 26 November he was left with "no communication with the outside world whatsoever". No way of calling for an ambulance, no way of asking for less urgent help and no way of talking to his power company.

His 84-year-old neighbour was in the same quandary: "Her phone is exactly the same as mine, one of the new digital phones from BT, and nothing worked."

Under the old landline system - the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) - home phones still function in a power cut (unless the lines themselves come down) because the exchange has back-up power which feeds to the phone through the line itself.

But this system is being switched off in 2025 and BT Openreach, which manages the UK's phone and internet network, has already begun moving people over to Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) connections, which work through broadband.

But Storm Arwen has highlighted a number of problems with the new technology, and its rollout: