Effects of VoIP on the Alarm Monitoring Industry
The vast majority of security systems have reliably transmitted alarm signals over landlines for decades, but now many of those landlines are being switched onto VoIP networks by the carrier without the knowledge of your subscriber. Many landlines are being replaced by VoIP without the knowledge of the Alarm Company. Subscribers cannot be blamed for wondering why they can make a voice call over their PSTN landline or VoIP service, yet their alarm panel cannot communicate with your Monitoring Center.
We all know the problem, but what about the solution?
The VoIP Cloud irons out all of the inconsitences caused by VoIP and reliably forwards signals into your existing receivers over PSTN.
The VoIP Cloud
Subscriber accounts that have proven troublesome, or Customers that have migrated to VoIP can use custom provisioned Linksys or Obihai VoIP adapters to reliably transmit signals over IP via our PSTN Termination partner network and into your alarm receivers over traditional telephone lines.
We have several PSTN termination partners in different countries and will be happy to work to find one if we do not have one in your country already.
Think of this from the Telco's perspective. If you were in charge of running a Telco business with XX million POTS line subscribers and you have to provide the best possible results for your shareholders. Would you:
a. Announce a POTS sunset and wave bye bye to your whole subscriber base.
b. Announce that you are converting your infrastructure to VoIP and risk losing Customers from sectors like alarm monitoring and other data centric industries.
c. Say nothing, convert your infrastructure to IP and keep your fingers crossed that not too many subscribers notice.
Barely a month goes by without someone raising this issue, so it's not like we don't know about it. I see failed signals as a positive thing as you are alerted to problems and can do something about it. The much larger, hidden issue, concerns all the systems out there that you THINK are working because they have yet to send a signal. If a system hasn't sent a signal that failed, then that means it's a perfectly functioning system right?
If you have systems not sending open/close or daily test signals then you are asking for trouble. What do you do if you have a subscriber sending monthly tests that have never failed and then one month it takes several attempts to get through, or even fails? What then if it signals perfectly the month after. Does that mean everything is working OK again?
Of course not. It means that you have a subscriber that thinks their system is signaling over a POTS line but is actually using VoIP. It will work some of the time, but perhaps not all of the time. Will it work when they press their panic button? Your subscriber is 100% sure it will, but knowing what you know, what do you think?
The industry has a duty of care to make every single subscriber aware of the issue. They should then be advised to do one of the following:
1. Reprogram "POTS" based systems to send daily test reports
2. Migrate to an alternative transmission path
The expected announcement of the POTS Sunset has changed from something like "POTS Sunset Scheduled for 2015" to something more along the lines of "BAD TRANSMISSION" or "FAILED TO COMMUNICATE". The wording may have changed, but the message is the same. You just need to be willing to listen.
