BT are disconnecting ALL LANDLINES. What about security systems?

c-low-ray

I have a Friedland Response SL5

THE SL5

IS THE AUTO-DIALER PULSE OR DIGITAL?

The difference will determine whether or not we have to ditch these systems or run a simple run-a-roubd for them to continue to operate as normal.

reboot

I live in a notspot,no mobile signal,ever.When BT Digital Voice takes the copper landline away,and the 50 volts dc with it,I'll no longer I won't be able to make even emergency calls when there is a power failure.At present even an old phone is usable,given the 50 volts is still on the copper. BTs answer on the subject of other devices working,loud ringers,alarms etc,is "Check with your supplier"

THere is a hybrid system available, but it's hybrid with a mobile signal.

It would also appear,that some of the new digital voice phones are not on the same freq as the hub,and won't work.

There's also a battery back up,4 AA batteries,but if you have fibre to the premises,ie a fibre box in the house,and a hub,you'd need two backups,lasting what,25 mind?

Seems like a Digital Disadvantage all round!

Also very relevant in the rest of Ireland. Similar is happening with OpenEir as they’re swapping out the Alcatel E10 and Ericsson AXE exchanges and replacing them with a Nokia MSAN VoIP platform. Some alarm systems may not be compatible with VoIP based voice:

See below :

https://www.g4s.com/en-ie/-/media/g4s/unitedkingdom/files/roi_pstn_switchover_presentation__final.ashx?la=en&hash=A93A712AFD337B849D761659636BD261

There will still be a dial tone and a -48V DC power supply to the phone line, but the technology for voice is VoIP based so, some modems in alarm diallers simply won’t work as the audio characteristics are different to TDM based digital exchanges used in the old PSTN

The MSAN system is also not going to be a long term solution. It’s part of a wind down of copper services. So in areas with high % of FTTH copper won’t be available. They have no intention of maintaining two parallel networks in the medium term. Same or similar is happening everywhere as the classic PSTN networks era draws to an end.

The existing digital switching platforms used by phone networks are all ‘end of life’, with no vendor support possible, so they have to go.

I could see similar happening with GPRS though. There’s no real incentive for the mobile companies to preserve legacy tech and a lot of alarm monitoring is using pretty old technology. There are almost no 2G users in terms of handsets, at this stage even 3G is fading out of use.

There are specific M2M (machine to machine) packages available and the support of these is becoming a sector in itself - smart meters, alarms, etc etc

Also by pulse or digital do you mean pulse-dialling vs touch tone? Neither of those is digital. They’re just two way of dialling on an analogue phone line. Pulse goes back to the 1920s and touch tone has been around since the 60s.

The big issue is that some modems cannot reliably communicate over VoIP because of how it handles audio. It actually produces much nicer voice audio but the modems were designed very specifically for the very old fashioned sampling rates and companding systems used in the legacy PSTN. Their modem tones just get distorted by VoIP and often don’t work.

So even with adapters etc, some alarm diallers may struggle.

I would suspect some of the older ones might actually work better as they used extremely slow, simple modems that used very few tones. More modern modems (and modern fax machines) don’t like VoIP.

reboot

Interesting fault after switcherover to voice BT Digital Voice.

Dial tone disappeared and I assumed it to be a fault their end,and kept checking back to see if it had cleared. It didn't clear,a neighbours phone was working.

At one point I heard an intermittent tone on the line,which reminded me of the 1571 messaging service,which I'd never signed up to,or paid for.

Thought I'd dial 1571, and low, got 3 messages from friends, didn't know I'd that many, fault cleared,dial tone returned alls well.

Called BT for a chat, seems 1571 message service comes free with digital voice.

They couldn't explain the fault.

reboot

Seems the BT 1571 answering service comes free now with the VOIP BT Digital Voice switchover.

I managed to clear the fault,ie no dialing tone,by typing 1571. Three messages came up and dialing tone was restored.Also strange it would seem that with the new free BT phone sent to the house,the old phone will plug into the hub,apparently giving me a second line of sorts? Spooky action at a distance.