Phonewatch new system not contacting monitoring centre

Mkeavney37 · 12-05-2018 03:56PM #1

Hello all,
Just want to run something by everyone here. I am a longtime customer of phonewatch and late last year I upgraded my system to the latest model which is a GSM based system that sends the activation and pictures to the monitoring station. Since the upgrade I have had a technician out 3 times as I accidentally activated the alarm but received no call from them as there was no signal to the monitoring station. Last week I questioned the guy a little more on what exactly was happening and he said while it is a GSM system it really needs to be wired to my router to send the signal???? I find this hard to digest as my main reason for upgrading was so I could get rid of my landline/broadband completely so from what I now understand this new system must have a very strong GSM signal and a wired broadband connection as without the broadband connection if all of my motion sensors are activated by a burglar it just jams the system and the monitoring centre receive no signals whatsoever. Needless to say I am very disappointed and feel I have upgraded to a lesser quality system with many many flaws.

KoolKid · 12-05-2018 06:18PM

And were they not calling you to let you know no signals were being received.
New good reliable system could notify you in 15 minutes of communications failure.

kub · 12-05-2018 08:01PM

Op, for professional monitoring I would not at all recommend using a router for notifications.
If the power goes, then so does your communication capability, a loss of comms is not an indication of a break in.
Now as you have a Phone Watch system then chances are you have a decoy alarm box on your house, therefore no noise outside.

Is there a remote keypad on this system?
If so I wonder could the control panel unit which has the SIM card within repositioned elsewhere in your home where perhaps mobile network coverage may be better?

Mkeavney37 · 12-05-2018 08:26PM

Well they did call me to say they would send a tech out as there was a signal issue, but at the moment it’s quite hard to have any faith in the system

KoolKid · 13-05-2018 01:23PM

As a matter of interest.. Do PW not use international sim cards.
It's very rare to see GSM signal struggle like this.

Mkeavney37 · 13-05-2018 01:29PM

KoolKid wrote: »

As a matter of interest.. Do PW not use international sim cards.
It's very rare to see GSM signal struggle like this.

Yes they do it’s a T2 sim as I told him that Vodafone was the strongest signal in our area and he said that it would then pick up the strongest provider but even after having the control box replaced & moved twice it still struggles

KoolKid · 13-05-2018 08:27PM

Something not right there. I presume that you are not in the middle of nowhere.

Phonewatch new system not contacting monitoring centre

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