The clock is ticking on the great UK analogue telephony switch-off – but there’s more to this digital revolution than just voice.
How many are ready for the impact on network-reliant alarm systems?
Tens of thousands of sheltered and semi-sheltered housing schemes depend upon the ability for elderly and vulnerable residents to push a help button when they are in need of assistance. Also, businesses everywhere rely on analogue technology to connect their intruder alarm systems to their security and protection providers.
Free hardware provided by the carriers will seamlessly convert voice, but its ability to reliably send complete and uncompromised alarm tones upon which those systems depend is perhaps less certain.
Alarm communication is different from voice communication
“For residential voice users, the analogue switch-off will mean that the new digital replacement will provide enhanced clarity and reliability, and the operators are providing broadband telephony gateway plug-ins to facilitate that - but for alarm systems, the adaptation is not as straightforward,” says Gunnar Reinholdsen, Founder at leading real-time communications platform provider iotcomms.io.
“There are a lot of different types of alarm devices out there and they rely on the sending and receiving of a string of tones. If just one tone is missing or there is an echo on the line, the alarm information is either not received by the alarm receiving centre (ARC) at all, or it might not deliver the entire information an ARC agent needs to handle the alarm efficiently. Think of it as a handshake of alarm information that’s needed between the device and the ARC. It is important to be aware of these challenges as they are extra relevant in the PSTN switch-off context.”
An inexpensive bridge from the old to the new
One way to tackle the analogue network switch-off is to invest tens of thousands of pounds in new, root-and-branch digital communication hardware. However, another is to leverage the inexpensive smarts of subscription-based services that cleverly provides alarm systems with an invisible bridge from the old to the new.
For Solution Providers, it is an opportunity to not only instantly solve alarm-reliant customers’ PSTN switch-off challenges, but also to retain customers who may otherwise have felt the need to shop around for a new technology partner.
All those providers have to do is seek out a solution that delivers on both fronts.
