VOIP And Digital Phone Service Disruptions

It is important that you are aware of potential that VOIP & Digital Phone service disruptions. They can adversely affect your electronic security/life safety systems leaving it incapable of communicating with the central station.

If you have any questions, we encourage you to contact us at 845-342-4400.

We would like to inform you about the potential impact that new types of phone services may have on your security/life safety systems. Commonly referred to as VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) and digital telephone service, these new phone options are rapidly growing in popularity. These technologies allow you to make telephone calls via a broadband connection instead of using a traditional landline phone service. The benefits of these technologies include enhanced features and lower costs compared to traditional services. Typically, these new types of phone services replace your landline service.

We encourage you to check with us before making any changes to your existing telephone service. If you have already switched to VoIP or digital phone service, it is extremely important that you contact us immediately.

In almost all cases, your security/life safety systems rely on proper operation of the telephone line, and its associated special security wiring, to reliably communicate alarm signals to the central station. There are several important things to consider before making the decision to use VoIP or digital telephone service:

• With a self-installed VoIP service, such as Vonage or AT&T’s CallVantage, your alarm system may lose its connection to the telephone service rendering the system unable to send alarm signals to the central station. VoIP technology may also cause your alarm signals to get scrambled as they are sent to the central station.
• With digital telephone services offered by cable or telephone providers like Comcast & Verizon, your system may be unable to consistently and reliably send alarm signals to the central station. This technology may also cause your alarm signals to get scrambled as they are sent to the central station.
• In addition to the security system’s battery back-up equipment, VoIP and digital phone services may need additional battery back-up equipment to maintain communications in the event of a power failure.

There is a significant risk that your security/life safety systems will not be able to communicate an emergency signal to the central station.

For the utmost reliability, there are new security communication solutions available that use digital wireless transmission or the Internet to reliably send alarm signals to the central station. These services allow you to take maximum advantage of cost savings from VoIP or digital telephone services while maintaining and even improving, the reliability of your security/life safety system. We would be happy to discuss these options with you.