Tulsa & OKC Alarm Monitoring - Will It Be Effected by the Digital Transition?

A switch from customary wired phone service to Internet-based communications is creating a great deal of concern in the alarm service industry. Will Mac Systems in Tulsa and Oklahoma City be affected by the changes? What are some of the security system and alarm monitoring concerns involved with this transition?

In February, the Alarm Industry Communications Committee (AICC) filed documents with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) expressing serious concerns about AT&T trials to phase-out customary phone service and transition to Internet Protocol (IP) services in numerous test areas.

Among several areas of concern about the AT&T TDM-to-IP transition trials, which were planned to begin in late 2014 or 2015 but may now be slated for late 2015, was its effect on alarm systems, alarm monitoring, and other emergency response services.

“The majority of alarm customers still rely on TDM-based telephone service as their underlying communication service and a majority of customers of PERS service are connected by TDM-based telephone service,” they told the FCC.

A number of issues have arisen, the AICC said, with IP-based services and alarm systems including broadband providers circumventing the line seizure utility when installing the service, which in turn prevents the alarm signals from being transmitted to the alarm monitoring station.

“Some IP services do not properly encode and decode alarm signals or may do so on an inconsistent basis,” they noted in the FCC file. “. . .and broadband networks do have sufficient back up power throughout the network to ensure operation during emergencies.”

The AICC did say that these problems are not insurmountable but that the IP-based services of necessity must meet certain minimum requirements in order to maintain life safety services.

The national alarm company ADT asked Kentucky lawmakers to delay passing a telecom deregulation bill, which would allow phone companies to cut-off landline service, until the transition trials were completed, Public News Service reported. If they stopped traditional wired phone service, ADT executives are afraid many could be left without life-safety alarm services.

Steve Shapiro, ADT’s vice president of industry relations, explained to Public News Service, “There is some likelihood that alarm systems and/or medical alert systems may not be able to send signals to ADT’s monitoring centers.”

Thus, with all of the worry about the digital transition in the alarm industry, how will this transition effect Mac Systems’ ability to provide alarm monitoring services in OKC and Tulsa?

To put it candidly, it won’t really have any effect on Mac Systems’ alarm monitoring service because of the timeless technology used by MacNet wireless alarm monitoring.

Instead of depending on telephone lines, VoIP, or GSM to transmit alarm signals, MacNet uses a private mesh radio communications network. Using mesh radio technology means you won’t have infrastructure changes or technological enhancements.

This Tulsa and OKC alarm monitoring service is actually more reliable than alternatives because it uses a redundancy of multiple signal pathways to send signals to the main monitoring station. Signals may go from the monitored alarm panel to the central station directly or “hop” through other MacNet subscribers via one of many possible routes until it gets a confirmed delivery. These signals are received by the central station in within seconds.

Using mesh radio technology means that the system will work regardless of weather, national disasters or accidents because it doesn’t rely on either a phone or Internet service. It’s also NFPA 72 compliant and UL Listed, so it stands up to all the requirements for use in primary and secondary alarm signaling.

Thus, while other commercial alarm monitoring services may run into issues with the inevitable digital TDM-to-IP transition, MacNet wireless alarm monitoring will always be reliable and not dependent on any type of third-party communication systems.