BY: LAUREN BEHLE, MANAGED SYSTEMS CONTRACT SALES
One of the most often overlooked aspects of any alarm system is its monitoring communicator. Nearly everyone understands the basic concept: your alarm system looks out for you, and the monitoring service looks out for your alarm system.
However, because it’s so straightforward, many business owners treat it as something you can set and forget. And while that should be true in theory, there are some key industry changes you should be aware of to maximize both your cost-savings and peace of mind.
UNEXPECTED PRICE HIKES
In the past, alarm monitoring services were primarily carried by the traditional copper-wire lines you may have heard referred to as analog or POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) lines. These lines have become increasingly antiquated and expensive for phone carriers like AT&T and Spectrum to maintain in recent years.
As a result, carriers have begun drastically raising the rates on POTS lines to push customers off of them. However, many customers are not attentive to their phone bills, and are paying substantially more without realizing it. In some cases, we have witnessed customers paying as much as $800/month for traditional phone lines!
COMPATIBILITY IS KEY
You may be wondering: if carriers are moving away from copper POTS lines, what are they switching to? The answer, largely, is digital phone service.
The problem: while digital voice service is excellent at carrying phone calls, it often runs into compatibility issues with alarm panels. Monitoring communicators are programmed to transmit large amounts of specific data in very short time frames. Digital voice lines, however, transmit data in very small packets, often making changes to the data in the process. As a result, when POTS lines connected to a fire alarm panel are switched over to voice lines, these transmissions often become unrecognizable to the monitoring station.
This is a huge problem, as it means the alarm system is functionally left unmonitored.
THE WAY FORWARD
Fortunately, there is a solution that makes sense for both your business and your budget. Modern alarm communicators either transmit data over cellular networks, or offer dual-path communication, which allows the system to communicate either using IP or cellular. If the primary means of communication drops out, the secondary path picks up the transmission, building redundancy and increasing the reliability of communication.
Additionally, with cellular or IP-based monitoring, the alarm system is in near-constant communication with the central monitoring station. This is a huge improvement from POTS lines, wherein the alarm system only checked in with the monitoring center a maximum of two times per day. Now, you can be notified of issues with your alarm system immediately, rather than only hearing about it when the system misses its next test.
Best of all, the opportunity to eliminate those expensive POTS lines means substantial cost savings for your business. It isn’t every day that the more cost-effective option is also the one that provides the most peace of mind!
