Together against loneliness: Free phones for the elderly in isolation

Being confined to your own four walls or – even worse – isolated from your loved ones in a hospital or care facility is a completely new experience for many in times of the Corona pandemic. For millions of elderly people, however, loneliness and silence are part of their everyday lives. 100 new Snom phones for volunteers and employees of the Silbernetz (Silver Network) registered charity will now help to change this.

When their children have left home, their spouse has passed away and the television or radio is their only connection to the outside world, a telephone call can be a great source of support for many senior citizens – even beyond Corona and lockdown. Berlin-based charity Silbernetz e. V. made it its task 18 months ago to gradually get these fellow citizens out of isolation with its silver telephone and the volunteer silver network friends.

Thanks to a great deal of public interest, especially in light of the current crisis, the Silbernetz hotline toll-free number, initially available for Berlin and the surrounding area, has recently been extended to the whole of Germany. However, as an added complication, telephone operators of the silver telephone now have to work from home to avoid contracting the coronavirus.

Help was needed and quickly found: Merlin Wolf, a Snom channel partner for many years, contacted the Berlin-based manufacturer of IP phones. The concept was convincing and after only two hours, not only was the management’s approval granted, but the model of phone was selected and logistics organised. Just three working days later, 100 units of the all-round phone D715 were on the doorstep of Silbernetz – an extremely tight schedule even outside the pandemic.

Thanks to its Gigabit Ethernet switch, the Snom professional desk phone D715 provides high-speed connectivity and delivers high-quality broadband audio. The USB port can be used to connect the Snom D7 expansion module for a better overview of contacts, or for WiFi connectivity using the Snom A210 USB stick, which extends its flexibility and functionality. This and its intuitive operation make it the ideal telephone to handle the continuously increasing call volume for the trained volunteers and employees working remotely.

“We feel very blessed. It’s almost like a fairy tale,” says Elke Schilling, initiator of Silbernetz. “With these 100 new telephones we can provide our volunteers and employees with the best possible WFH (working from home) equipment. This donation really means a lot for us and our callers from all over Germany.”

“Numerous organisations and companies are currently donating to so many worthy and important projects. The Silbernetz initiative, which can help those in isolation, even beyond the Corona crisis, appealed to us immediately. We are pleased to be able to help them," says Gernot Sagl, CEO of Snom Technology GmbH.