Do you need the higher speed broadband connection speeds offered by VM?
Could you get a new Openreach connection for broadband/phone with an acceptable speed?
Do you have any alt-net providers available who may be able to offer a connection?
If you moved to an Openreach connection, that would be an independent connection to VM so you should be able to overlap the two with no break in service before then cancelling VM. You would also get new customer pricing elsewhere.
Worth noting that if you did move providers you would still be left with a phone-via-router connection which might have implications for the lifeline device you mention as all new phonelines now are dependent on the router working. You would also need the VM phone line to be fully working if you wanted to port a phone number elsewhere.
Also worth noting that wherever you did move to, you would still very likely be stuck in a cycle of a discounted term for 18 months to 2 years (with pre-set price rises along the way each year) before the package price jumps up again at the end of the minimum term when you would have to renegotiate on behalf of your mother.
A new provider (very likely) should be able to offer better ease of contact and customer service as VM's measures for these are a very low benchmark to compare against.
You are unlikely to get a VM reply here in 'Community Natter'. A moderator or VIP might move your topic to ‘Managing Your Account – Cable’ where a VM person should reply within a few days.
